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NEWS AND VIEWS THAT IMPACT LIMITED CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT

"There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with
power to endanger the public liberty." - - - - John Adams

Thursday, January 5, 2012

BIG BROTHER is following you at the mall



Big Brother  -  Ten of Britain's largest malls are electronically watching all of their customers through their cell phones.


Shopping centers have triggered a Big Brother row after installing equipment that allows them to track customers using their mobile phone signals.

The technology has raised privacy concerns after it emerged that major shopping center owner Land Securities has installed it at ten of Britain’s biggest malls reports the UK Daily Mail.

Of course, none of this is new to readers of this Blog.  Malls in the United States are tracking the cell phones of their customers as you read this.  See our article THE FEDERALIST - "BIG BROTHER is at the Mall."

These include the giant Cabot Circus, Bristol; Gunwharf Quays, Portsmouth; Princesshay, Exeter; Buchanan Galleries, Glasgow; Bon Accord & St Nicholas, Aberdeen; and The Centre, Livingston.

Nick Pickles, of privacy and civil liberties group Big Brother Watch, said the law needs to be tightened to cope with new mobile phone tracking systems.

‘People are right to be worried that their mobile phones can be turned into tracking devices very easily, without their permission or knowledge,’ he said.

‘While we have been given assurances that the FootPath technology is not capable of capturing personal information or sending communications  to people’s phones, other technologies which would allow this are available.

'Such tracking and communications would be a significant intrusion  on privacy.’

Shoppers told about the tracking were concerned that they were effectively being followed without their permission.

A customer at Princesshay, Hilda Luscombe, said: ‘This is another invasion of our privacy. We shouldn’t have to switch off our phones to opt out. This is just spying on us.’

Another customer, Robert McConnell, said: ‘In the George Orwell  book 1984 everyone was saying ‘‘Big Brother Is Watching You’’. In 2012, everyone is asking ‘‘Who’s watching Big Brother?’’.


The 'warning' sign in the Princesshay shopping center.  Nick Pickles of Big Brother Watch says, 'It is assumed that the shopping center has the automatic right to track people's mobile phones - to me that's wrong.'

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