Dive Brief:

• The Federal Trade Commission aims to clarify privacy issues around mobile retail tracking as it settles its enforcement action against Nomi Technologies -- the first of its kind against a tracking service that allows retailers to follow customers through their stores via mobile technology. Nomi’s service, dubbed “Listen,” provides real-time analytics and measures variables like window conversion, visit duration and frequency, and device type. Retailers can learn how much time customers are in the store and whether they’ve been there before.

• Nomi has settled the complaint, agreeing to a prohibition against “misrepresenting consumers' options for controlling whether information is collected, used, disclosed or shared about them or their computers or other devices, as well as the extent to which consumers will be notified about information practices,” according to the FTC.

• The FTC had said that Nomi’s privacy policy wasn't good enough because the opt-out opportunity existed only online, rather than on mobile, despite a promise on the site that customers could opt out in the store, and that consumers were being tracked without their knowledge.

Dive Insight:

The FTC’s action centers mostly on Nomi’s failure to live up to its own opt-out promise. Information from in-store tracking is extremely useful, making it tempting for retailers, hungry for data, to gather information on customers without their explicit permission.

But consumers are wary of it, want to be informed, want the power to opt in or out, and, when they do opt in, want something in return.