The Wall Street Journal

2-6-5

BRAINTREE, Mass. - Stepping into a Gap store at the South Shore Shopping Plaza on a recent evening, Laura Munro became a research statistic.

Twelve feet above her, a device resembling a smoke detector, mounted on the ceiling and equipped with a hidden camera, took a picture of her head and shoulders. The image was fed to a computer and shipped to a database in Chicago, where ShopperTrak, a consumer research firm, keeps count of shoppers using 40,000 cameras placed in stores and malls.

ShopperTrak is a leader in "video mining" - an emerging field in marketing research enabled by technology that can analyze video images without relying on human eyes.

ShopperTrak says it doesn't take pictures of faces. The company worries that shoppers would perceive that as an invasion of privacy. But nearly all of its videotaping is done without the knowledge of the people being taped.

"I didn't even know there was a camera up there," said Munro, who popped into the mall to find a gift for her 12-year-old daughter.

Using software to gauge the size of the images of people, a ShopperTrak computer determined Munro was an adult, and thus a bona fide shopper. Weeding out youngsters is crucial in calculating one of the valuable bits of data ShopperTrak sells - the percentage of shoppers who buy and the percentage who only browse. It arrives at this data by comparing the number of people taped entering the store with the number of transactions.

Of the millions of shoppers videotaped daily in the United States, many know security cameras are watching. But far fewer consumers know they are being filmed for market research.

ShopperTrak discloses its clients, which include Gap and its Banana Republic unit; Limited Brands, and its Victoria's Secret chain; PaylessShoe Source; American Eagle Outfitters; and Children's Place Retail Stores.

Several other research companies that videotape shoppers say their clients want the taping to be secret - and worry that shoppers would feel alienated or complain of privacy invasion if they knew.

Katherine Albrecht, founder of Caspian, a consumer-advocacy group, says consumers have "no idea such things as video tracking are going on" and should be informed. When she tells them about such activities, she says the response she often hears is, "Isn't this illegal, like stalking? Shouldn't there be a law against it?" No state laws forbid retailers from videotaping shoppers for research.

Some research companies' cameras, with lenses as small as a quarter, can provide data on everything from the density of shopping traffic in an aisle to the reactions to the latest plasma-TV set. The cash register is a popular spot for cameras, too. But cameras also can be found in banks, fast-food outlets and hotel lobbies.

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