• CNNMoney , Tuesday, November 29, 2011 3:06 PM

Remember those two malls we told you about last year, which planned on tracking shoppers’ every move by monitoring their cell phone signals. Well, following a phone call from Sen. Charles Schumer's office, the Promenade Temecula in southern California and Short Pump Town Center in Richmond, Va. have decided to put the project on hold. While malls have long tracked how crowds move throughout their stores, this would have been the first time they've used cell phones, CNNMoney.com reported last week. Customers were to be notified of the tracking via small signs, but the only way for them to opt out would have been to turn off their phones.

In a press conference on Sunday, Sen. Charles Schumer said the malls should have given shoppers the choice to opt-in, CNNMoney reports. "A shopper's personal cell phone should not be used by a third party as a tracking device by retailers who are seeking to determine holiday shopping patterns," the New York senator said in a statement. "Personal cell phones are just that -- personal. If retailers want to tap into your phone to see what your shopping patterns are, they can ask you for your permission to do so."

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