

In-store and online customer tracking: is it useful or is it stalking?
The other day I noticed that my Tesco shopping trolley had a monitoring device on it. On the back of the basket there was a small black box with a sign on it that said, “We’re working to understand how customers shop so we can serve you better.” Yikes, I am being tracked! Digging into it deeper, being physically tracked through a store isn’t that unusual, it’s called “indoor positioning” and sophisticated retailers are using this capability. With the help of the Wi-Fi signal


Sharing made easier by technology
I am amazed at the collective action that commuters in the San Francisco Bay area spontaneously take when commuting into the city. For the past 30 years commuters heading west across the San Francisco - Oakland Bay bridge have set up an informal carpool system where, on weekday mornings, both passengers and drivers meet at designated areas in the East Bay to ride share into downtown San Francisco. Nowadays dynamic carpooling has taken on a technological twist, passengers and