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The Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2017/05/23/google-now-knows-when-you-are-at-a-cash-register-and-how-much-you-are-spending/ reports that Google has talked retailers into sharing data from credit card transactions, which it will link to location and other data, to further enhance consumer profiling*.
The article says "Google for years has been mining location data from Google Maps in an effort to prove that knowledge of people's physical locations could "close the loop" between physical and digital worlds. Users can block this by adjusting the settings on smartphones, but few do so, say privacy experts.
This location tracking ability has allowed Google to send reports to retailers telling them, for example, whether people who saw an ad for a lawn mower later visited or passed by a Home Depot. The location-tracking program has grown since it was first launched with only a handful of retailers. Home Depot, Express, Nissan, and Sephora have participated."
* and erode privacy.
The article also makes it clear than consumers don't get to opt-out, if they even find out their data has been shared.
(Score: 2) by Unixnut on Wednesday May 24 2017, @02:11PM (12 children)
Sweden is pretty much fully in the push for cashless, and others are following suit. There are lot of places there that will refuse cash transactions. Plus EU nations will ignore laws when it suits them, so you are in the same mess.
Fundamentally in the EU the government and agencies already have the data, so if they have a problem with this, it is more because they don't want Google competing with them. You are still stuck with the same problem, if not a worse one.
Thankfully the Germans seem to have brains, and are pretty much a cash heavy society and pro privacy. If things continue in the direction they are heading, I may end up moving there (not knowing German and finding a job are the stickers right now).
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 24 2017, @03:20PM (6 children)
Germany is full of Muslims that exercise violence and attacks against pretty much everyone else. Out of the ashes into the fire..
(Score: 3, Informative) by Unixnut on Wednesday May 24 2017, @03:25PM
And as publicly reminded a couple of days ago, where I currently am (UK) isn't exactly blossoming with peace, tranquility and goodwill among men, now is it?
(Score: 5, Informative) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Wednesday May 24 2017, @04:15PM (4 children)
Yes, this is exactly right. Parent post is not exaggerating in the slightest, and nor am I. I went to Munich earlier this year and was surprised to find that instead of warm hospitality, ancient architecture and smiling drindl-clad Fraulien serving fine bier and traditional fare in beautiful surroundings, I was actually greeted by a blasted, post-apocalyptic wasteland, where gangs of muslims on dirty motorbikes roam the charred remains of the streets, preying up on the weak and unwary. Rather than a safe, pleasant and somewhat boozy business trip in a clean, modern, welcoming city, I had to endure two and a half days of gruelling life-or-death encounters with packs of feral AK-wielding jihadis. Scarred, burned and bleeding, I only just made it out with the majority of my limbs still attached, and for the rest of my life the mere smell of Taboulleh will induce screaming PTSD. What's more they had run out of nuts on the flight back. No bullshit.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 24 2017, @04:48PM (1 child)
Be thankful you're far from the horrible "carnage" going on in Chicago, 228 shootings in 2017 with 42 killings (up 24% from 2016).
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday May 24 2017, @05:28PM
Warm winter?
How many were within 3 miles of State & 95th?
There are two Chicago: one is a nice -if crowded- big city with shops and life, the other is a 3rd-world wasteland of poverty with active gang wars.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 24 2017, @11:13PM (1 child)
I hope that this is not sarcasm. Women are being raped and killed by muslims in Germany due to the mass migration. The videos posted on youtube asking the world to help are soul crushing. Germany is dying
(Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Thursday May 25 2017, @10:49AM
Of course it is sarcasm, you steaming moron. Germany is a safe, stable, affluent country. It's a great place to live or to visit. Go there. Sure, it has some crime like anywhere else, but it's not some kind of warzone like Breitbart would have you believe.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by AthanasiusKircher on Wednesday May 24 2017, @03:49PM (1 child)
Just make sure you have exact change. ATMs that spit out 50 Euro bills and dour German grocery cashiers that expect you to have precisely 16.85 to pay for your items don't really mix well. If you don't have the pennies to satisfy your debt exactly, show deepest regret and apologize profusely for your abject stupidity in being unable to hoard change as if you were a cash register and manage it like a proper German. (Some of the cashiers will merely look at you with great disdain, as if you had killed a puppy in front of them; others will actually lecture you.)
(Score: 2) by Unixnut on Wednesday May 24 2017, @04:05PM
Lol, good to know. I always have the exact amount ready. I pre-calculate the cost, and while in line I prep cash and change, so that when it comes to my turn I just hand over the money and transaction completes successfully. If I don't have exact amount I usually let them keep the difference. Quite a few times I found them trying to overcharge me as well.
And I got bags of change at home, which made it a pain when they decided to get rid of the £1 coin, I had to manually dig out every £1 coin in the bags and put them in a pile to use up. £63 in one pound coins I found. For a while I paid with everything in £1 coins only, the look on some cashiers faces was priceless XD
Once the coin changes go through, I may well buy one of those coin sorting machines, so they can all be in nice piles. That would make me happy.
(Score: 2) by quietus on Wednesday May 24 2017, @05:10PM (2 children)
Are you saying here that EU governments are tracking your location, and/or buying history?
(Score: 2) by Unixnut on Wednesday May 24 2017, @05:30PM
I am saying that if they want to, they can get access to that data from the banks.
As for location, there are enough CCTV cameras around here that the pretty much know where I have been every single day, at what time, so yes, they are.
I suspect it varies by government. I get the impression the German government is far more restricted in what it can do vs say, the French or UK governments, who have far more power in this area.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 25 2017, @07:58AM
In Denmark, the process is called Registersammenkørsel, where they aggregate all data on you from Kommunal (your CPR number and passport number, everywhere you worked, any interactions with Kommune, properties, family status, your registered place of residence, schools you been to) and bank systems (raw transaction history), complete with your full dossier from police and whatever MP might have on you... Not sure if municipal authorities can request the list of numbers you have called, as a part of their investigation...
If spy agencies (PET and FET) have anything on you, they will probably not share the data they have on you with anyone, unless its somehow helping them and their mission. But they have their own surveillance budget and answer to noone. Only police and up can legally request data from third-party companies, that operate on danish soil and have data on you... Doesn't mean that an illegal request wouldn't be accommodated, as long as right person asking right person for appropriate data.
If its a criminal investigation, they might also request ALL data that telecommunication providers hoard, as required by law; usually last 5 years (or was it 3?) of recorded voice and sms, locations and such. Nowadays i imagine they also collect every URL you request and every DNS request you make, also last 5 years allegedly... not sure if that law was passed tho. I act as if they do *shrug*
It's not government or local municipality gathering the data, but they can have it within five business days or so, cos it's all pre-gathered already.