Isn't this already happening? I got a tour from one of the techs at a major general store on how they track users "to enhance user experience". It's both impressive and terrifying. Using simple things like tracking the wireless signals on your smartphone they can see exactly when you pass or enter the store, which departments you visit and stay longest, etc. The system is even linked up to a camera at checkout so they have your picture linked to all other details they gathered.

In the country I live it's also very popular for every store to have their own plastic card you gather points on at every purchase (e.g. for discounts or freebies). This is an easy way of matching your purchases with all the other personal information they gather.

NY Times had an article in 2013 about this very thing. [1] But the amazing thing was, when users/customers found out that they were being tracked and the level of detail found in the tracking methods, some of them complained. They were quoted as saying "creepy", and "way over the line."

If users knew how much of their entire lives could be pieced together by browser tracking, cookies, and the same techniques that advertisement companies use to target groups of people, I feel that they would say the same thing.

[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/15/business/attention-shopper...

The practice of tracking your location in a store by means of wifi and bluetooth connection signals has actually been deemed illegal by a judge in the Netherlands. There is some hope in legislation catching up with technology in that respect.

Privacy and freedom are orthogonal concepts. A lack of privacy can only lead to a lack of freedom if institutions have excessive coercive powers and if a society has strongly held but commonly broken rules. IMO, getting rid of the latter as much as possible is much easier than guaranteeing privacy for everyone.

It would be really convenient if they would just integrate phones into our right hands and foreheads.