Privacy breach feared as big data trickle into retail industry   

连接商场wifi能收到优惠信息 购物踪迹却会被定位

近日，位于苏州工业园区的盈联智能零售体验中心正式开放，这也是中国第一个智能零售大数据体验中心。只要连上商场wifi并在商场定位范围内，顾客信息数据就会被采集分析。这项技术可以记录顾客在哪个区域停留时间最久，对什么产品感兴趣，甚至可以知道购物倾向和能力。[查看全文]

(ECNS) – While big data analytics has already started a revolution among retail chains such as Macy's and Target in the US, stores in China are also embracing it to optimize their sales. But lawyers are warning of privacy concerns.

China's first shopping mall to employ big data, Yinglian Intelligence Retail Center in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, has been testing the tool and expects to officially start using it in August or September.

If shoppers inside the mall connect to its Wi-Fi and install its app or simply log in to their WeChat, China's most popular instant messaging application, data will be automatically collected, about where they stay the longest, what products they've browsed, their buying power and purchasing records.

With the data, retailers will be able to better understand customer-buying behavior and sharpen their promotions accordingly.

Meanwhile, shoppers will receive advertisements and promotions tailored to their needs. They can also make payments by scanning the QR codes, or get parking and other information.

The technology, developed by Yinglian Technology Co, traces customers using access point locators installed at the mall.

"With this technology, we want physical retailers to have big data as their virtual counterparts do," says the company's president Guan Zhiheng. "We hope they don't lose at the starting line."

Brick and mortar retailers are increasingly losing ground to online shops in the digital age. Customers use physical stores as a fitting room and buy what they want online. Online retailers like Amazon can easily display special offers and launch tailored advertisements with the data it collects. Therefore, physical stores have to look toward big data to help them stay relevant.

What follows is privacy concerns, as buyers' locations and other private information is made known to retailers and even other parties if the information is leaked.

Guan said the data will be available only to the company's high-level technicians, but also said whether they would compromise the information is beyond control.

Ni Zhihan, a lawyer at Jiangsu's Huawei Law Firm, says retailers should tell customers that they'll be traced when they connect their phones to the Wi-Fi.