CELL PHONES, Black Friday

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) - Attention holiday consumers: your mobile is tracked this year.

Beginning on Ebony Friday and running all the way through New Year's Day, two U.S. malls - Promenade Temecula in south California and brief Pump Town Center in Richmond, Va. - will keep track of visitors' motions by keeping track of the indicators from their particular cell phones.

Although the information that is gathered is anonymous, it could follow buyers' paths from store to store.

Objective is actually for shops to answer concerns like: just how many Nordstrom shoppers also stop at Starbucks? How long do most consumers linger in Victoria's Secret? Exist unpopular spots when you look at the shopping mall that aren't becoming seen?

While U.S. malls have traditionally tracked exactly how crowds move throughout their stores, this is the very first time they have utilized mobiles.

But obtaining that information includes privacy issues.

The administration company of both malls, woodland City Commercial control, says personal data is not tracked.

"We will not be considering single consumers, " stated Stephanie Shriver-Engdahl, vice president of electronic strategy for Forest City. "the device tracks habits of action. We could see, like migrating wild birds, in which people are likely to."

Nevertheless, the organization is preemptively notifying consumers by hanging small indications around the shopping malls. Consumers can choose out by turning off their phones.

The tracking system, called FootPath tech, works through a number of antennas situated through the entire shopping mall that capture the initial identification quantity assigned to every phone (comparable to some type of computer's IP address), and tracks its motion for the stores.

The device cannot just take photos or compile data on which shoppers have bought. Plus it does not collect any personal stats associated with the ID, like the customer's title or contact number. That information is fiercely safeguarded by cellular companies, and sometimes could be legally acquired just through a court purchase.

"We don't must know who it really is therefore we don't have to know anyone's mobile phone number, nor do we would like that, " Shriver-Engdahl said.

Made by an Uk business, route Intelligence, this technology was already utilized in malls in European countries and Australian Continent. And based on route Intelligence CEO Sharon Biggar, extremely little consumers choose to choose completely.

"it is simply perhaps not unpleasant of privacy, " she said. "there are not any dangers to privacy, and so I cannot see why anyone would opt away."

Now, U.S. retailers including JCPenney (, Fortune 500) and Home Depot (, Fortune 500) may also be using the services of Path Intelligence to make use of their technology, Biggar said.