Knowing Your Customer A Little Too Well

I hate shopping.  I know what I want and I do a surgical strike.  In and out; no soldier left behind.

But most normal people browse a bit.  That's where Nomi Technologies came into the picture.  Nomi's technology allows retailers to track consumers' movements through their stores.  How does it work?  According to a complaint issued by the Federal Trade Commission and announced on April 23 in conjunction with a settlement, Nomi placed sensors in its clients' stores.  Those sensors collected the media access control address (MAC address) assigned to consumers' mobile devices.  Although Nomi took steps to de-identify the MAC addresses prior to storing them, the method used – hashing – still resulted in an identifier that is unique to a consumer's mobile device and can be tracked over time, according to the FTC.  And, that was the FTC's hook.