New way to opt out of mobile tracking

Marketers are gaga over our smartphones. They’re always with us. And they emit a signal that researchers and marketers have figured out how to capture and track.

Each phone has unique identifiers that it sends out based on your WiFi MAC address and Bluetooth address. That’s how Apple knows so much about you. If you have iPhone, they don’t like to talk about it, but they track everything you do at Apple.

But it’s not just Apple, it’s Android too. And all the tracking has led to a backlash. So to avoid being regulated, the industry is now haphazardly trying to create a system where you’ll be able to control how your phone’s info is being harvested.

Simply go to SmartStorePrivacy.org and you can opt out of this mobile tracking. Not every player in the tracking business is on board with this privacy initiative, but many of the bigger ones are.

Just click Take Me to Opt Out, enter both your WiFi MAC address and Bluetooth address and then you’re opted out. Full instructions on how to determine your MAC and Bluetooth address are available here.

By opting out, you can prevent retailers and potentially others from tracking your every movement at stores — how long you linger at an end cap, what parts of the store you spend the most time in, etc.

For further reading:

• Cookies are toast, so what’s next in online tracking?
• Flashlight app settles with FTC over spying
• How you’re being tracked at work