Not Health News, But Could Be Mental Health News One Day: Malls Track Shoppers' Cell Phone Signals

From CNN. Still think your smart phone is so smart? The tracking doesn't stop at the malls, folks. Cell phone towers track you as long as your phone is on.

"Attention holiday shoppers: your cell phone may be tracked this year.

Starting on Black Friday and running through New Year's Day, two U.S. malls -- Promenade Temecula in southern California and Short Pump Town Center in Richmond, Va. -- will track guests' movements by monitoring the signals from their cell phones.

While the data that's collected is anonymous, it can follow shoppers' paths from store to store.

The goal is for stores to answer questions like: How many Nordstrom shoppers also stop at Starbucks? How long do most customers linger in Victoria's Secret? Are there unpopular spots in the mall that aren't being visited?

While U.S. malls have long tracked how crowds move throughout their stores, this is the first time they've used cell phones.

But obtaining that information comes with privacy concerns.

The management company of both malls, Forest City Commercial Management, says personal data is not being tracked. "We won't be looking at singular shoppers," said Stephanie Shriver-Engdahl, vice president of digital strategy for Forest City. "The system monitors patterns of movement. We can see, like migrating birds, where people are going to."

Still, the company is preemptively notifying customers by hanging small signs around the shopping centers. Consumers can opt out by turning off their phones."

How about we just leave our phones at home as if they were connected to landlines? Callers can leave voice mails--you don't have to be there to answer every single stinkin' call and text!

Better idea: just stay home with your phone. You shouldn't be hitting the malls anyway, when the best deals are AFTER the holidays (from January through April). Considering that desperate people are showing up at stores with pepper spray, guns, and god knows what else, staying home sounds like the safest choice of all. I expect December door-buster sales will be met with mustard gas, rocket launchers, then nukes--how else do you escalate from guns and pepper spray?

Be on the lookout for military attack drones. :)