Conwy council takes over wi-fi hotspots

The council has a system whereby it collects data from wi-fi users at its offices, buildings, libraries and leisure centres, and uses it for marketing purposes, such as promoting events.

As part of the new scheme in partnership with the Welsh government, the council is able to track wi-fi users' mobile phones in Mostyn Street by triggering sensors.

He said that he appreciated that you are not capturing any personal data, but if we think, phones and most people have one, the Mac address is unique, the identifier in many cases.

Let's say I go down Mostyn Street, you are not able to tell who I am, my age, my other details, but you know where my phone has been, and someone would be able to connect that to an individual wouldn't they? Neil Payne, Conwy council IT manager, said that if you had details of your phone contracts, which we don't have, or if you went to the mobile phone providers, that's possible. He said the initial purpose of it is to monitor footfall. It just tracks the movement of phones, and it picks up what we call a Mac address, a unique address, no personal details at all. I could go out and look at the registration on a car and see where that car goes, and nobody worries about that.