Private data security

Shops set to spy on us by tracking our smartphones: Scanners will collect information on how many people pass in bid to try and revive the High Street 

Scanners are to be placed outside stores from Pret a Manger to Aldi to track people through their smartphones’ wifi signals.

One thousand of the sensors will be used to measure the numbers passing or entering, known as footfall.

The idea is that the information could help revive dying high streets threatened by the rise of internet shopping.

It could lead to changes in bus timetables to make shopping visits easier, or identify times of the day when free parking would help retailers. In theory, it could even be used to decide that some town centres are beyond saving.

But the idea that shoppers will be tracked through their phones’ wifi signals is controversial. Many balk at the rise of the surveillance society through CCTV cameras, automatic number plate recognition and smartphones.

The campaigning group Big Brother Watch warned that many people do not realise they are being scanned in this way and that such surveillance systems are open to abuse.