NYC Startup Records Foot Traffic

At this point it’s safe to assume that any time you leave your house, your movements are being recorded on camera, from parking lots, stores, gas stations, etc.

Jason Fell in his article on Entrepreneur.com explains that in addition to the surveillance cameras that we know about, there are now makeshift cameras we can’t see tracking our movements. Placemeter is a startup company that records foot traffic in New York City from smart phones attached by residents to their apartment windows with suction cups.

The purpose of recording the pedestrians’ movements is to provide data to consumers, kind of like a traffic cam.

For anyone who has struggled with long lines and unending wait times by going to the grocery store at the wrong time in a big city, this could be highly valuable information.

The company behind the potentially invasive monitoring insists that no pedestrians are identified through their video streaming. The surveillance does identify the destinations you may wish to visit, however, and measures how many people are going in and out.

Fell says that this is only the beginning. “A [Placemeter] representative pointed out that the company has more than 700 ‘viable applications.’ Beyond NYC, Placemeter aims to expand to other cities in the U.S. and abroad.”

To read the original article in its entirety, please visit Entrepreneur.com.