Merchants are using our smartphones to track our movement within stores, wrote The Economist.

• If a retailer see’s that shoppers often go from drinks to frozen foods, then they might want to push the sections closer together – or further apart, to expose customers to more products.
• If you’re in a Westfield shopping mall and you search for a rival, you can expect to see a discount offered to you on the spot.
• Once the systems become precise enough they could also be used to help guide customers to the exact spot where they’ll find their desired product.
• Apple and Google are looking to build systems that will allow for this kind of tracking. Those who use public Wi-Fi shouldn’t expect privacy anyway – Wi-Fi agreements often confer the right on the provider to track location.

Read more on The Economist.