It was a beta test run 2 years ago. Someone ran fast and broke things and were probably fired. Take off your tinfoil hat and relax.

CF doesn't care who the individuals are or their identities, though general demographics would probably be interesting. They certainly have signs up at every entrance clearly indicating that you are on camera, but I think they are actually surprised about the biometrics data being stored offsite. I suspect they didn't understand this when they setup the AVA trial.

They use analytics on the WiFi based on MAC as well as Internet use.

This data is used to determine the number of unique users that pass by different parts of the mall to identify high traffic and 'dead zones'. They use different marketing programs to increase traffic to dead zones and can justify higher rent in high traffic zones.