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posted by martyb on Wednesday May 24 2017, @01:44PM   Printer-friendly
from the all-your-data-are-belong-to-us. dept.

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.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 24 2017, @02:56PM (11 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 24 2017, @02:56PM (#514830)

    That was an experiment, the only reason I can think of for a no cash policy is employee theft, but that would be evident anyway. Also, transaction fees and the ever tempting opportunity for fiddling with the books makes the store seem even less likely. As a techie I really really hate some of the modern convenience we've created. Its a problem, for everyone and my own semi self loathing sanity.

  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by Unixnut on Wednesday May 24 2017, @03:03PM (10 children)

    by Unixnut (5779) on Wednesday May 24 2017, @03:03PM (#514835)

    This was a small craft beer store. Their "register" was a phone app with a card reader. Hence no cash available. They didn't even mention they didn't accept cash, but I guess they assumed everyone who would visit such an establishment were all "in" to the latest gadget fashion, and would tap their phone/watch and be done with it.

    It was only when I pointed out to them that cash is legal tender and that they can't refuse it, did they show me their setup, and explained they cannot physically take cash, because the app doesn't allow you to input a cash transaction, only registers what is paid by card/app.

    Thankfully there were a bunch of other craft breweries round there that did accept cash, so I just went elsewhere. However I can imagine in future that more and more people will just get an app and card reader for their phone to accept payments, especially if they are given incentives to do so.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 24 2017, @03:29PM (3 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 24 2017, @03:29PM (#514846)

      I wouldn't let a little thing like this stop me from getting a beer. Why didn't you give the cash to the cashier or another customer and ask him/her to pay with their own card/phone-bump?

      Engineers are problem solvers. Or maybe you aren't an engineer?

      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Unixnut on Wednesday May 24 2017, @03:44PM (2 children)

        by Unixnut (5779) on Wednesday May 24 2017, @03:44PM (#514857)

        Matter of principle. It was an example of me taking my money elsewhere. In this case, exactly over the street to another craft beer store, that accepted cash.
        So I rewarded their competition with my patronage.

        I still got my beer, walking across the street wasn't a big deal for it. Yes, if there was no competition in the area, I could have done something like that, but there was no call for it.

        • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 24 2017, @03:57PM (1 child)

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 24 2017, @03:57PM (#514872)

          Understood. It's the clerk at the first pub that wasn't an engineer (problem solver). He/she could have offered to take your cash and put it on their personal card, or another work-around.

          • (Score: 2) by art guerrilla on Wednesday May 24 2017, @06:00PM

            by art guerrilla (3082) on Wednesday May 24 2017, @06:00PM (#514982)

            *that there* ! ! !
            there is the nub of the rub right that there: WE mere human beans who -as 'masters'- this technology is SUPPOSED to serve, end up being the ones who have to 'work around' the shortcomings of a system that doesn't give a shit about what human beans want, ONLY what superior-beings, korporations, want...
            AND the more human-unfriendly tech invades every corner of our lives, the more we have to 'work around' the limitations of tech...
            .
            as way of illustration, just had an annoying sequence of events essentially beyond my control:
            use t'bird as email client because goog's gmail sucks (HATE blobs of email, want SEPARATE emails as dog almighty intended), added a laptop a couple months ago with t'bird accts set up there, everything percolates along nicely for a couple months, when, um, hey, what happened to my gmail showing up on my laptop ? ? ?
            go to send a test email to myself, and shows up on the desktop fine, does not show up on the laptop... um, wait a minute, emails not showing up here for the last week, wtf is going on ? ? ?
            dick around for an hour or so, just can't fathom what is going on...
            late at night, send a fuckity-fuck you fucktard fuckholes to the black hole of googlecutta, not expecting anything except perhaps a drone strike...
            next morning, that day's email shows up on laptop ! ! !
            PLUS have email from the fiendly fucktards at googs that *maybe* i want to check permissions on a couple apps, blah blah blah...
            hmmm, the plot thickens...
            so, of the three apps they suggest, one is t'bird, that is fine; one is a game i installed and uninstalled soon thereafter, but still had permissions for all kinds of shit; and one was an email app i installed on MY TABLET *BRIEFLY* before uninstalling, about 4-5 MONTHS AGO...
            apparently, this app was reaching back from the grave to change my gmail permissions and settings...
            WTF ? ? ?
            all this syncing shit is causing me more trouble than it is solving...
            AND, whenever you take the time to track down a lot of this crap and uninstall it (IF possible), turn it off, rescind permissions, etc; it only starts all over again when some 'update' or 'patch' or something causes all the settings to revert to WHAT THEY WANT, not what i want...
            .
            about to the point i am going back to an abacus, paper pad, pencil and call it a day...

    • (Score: 4, Informative) by AthanasiusKircher on Wednesday May 24 2017, @03:59PM (4 children)

      by AthanasiusKircher (5291) on Wednesday May 24 2017, @03:59PM (#514876) Journal

      It was only when I pointed out to them that cash is legal tender and that they can't refuse it

      That's a common misunderstanding of the term legal tender [wikipedia.org]. In most places, "legal tender" merely means that cash must be accepted for payment of debt only. In other words, if you took the beer on credit from the store, and later came to settle your debt, the store must accept cash payment as an option. If they refuse and try to sue you, the court will say that they need to accept cash payment for a debt.

      I don't know where you're based, but in the U.S. (and many other countries), there's no obligation for a merchant to accept cash for a transaction that has not been completed. Since you didn't leave the store with merchandise, no debt exists yet. They can put up a sign saying, "We only accept payment in goats," and that would be perfectly legal. Sale contracts between parties that don't involve cash happen legally all the time. They're uncommon at retail establishments, mostly for tax reasons -- because if you operated a barter store that only accepted goats as payment, you'd still have to appraise the value of every transaction in dollars to pay your taxes.

      • (Score: 2) by bootsy on Wednesday May 24 2017, @05:03PM (2 children)

        by bootsy (3440) on Wednesday May 24 2017, @05:03PM (#514943)

        In the UK this is termed an "Invitation to Treat".

        The shop is offering you the chance to offer a trade with them but they can still say no.

        Unless you can prove they are discriminating against you due to race, sex, disability, sexual orientation etc then they are allowed to refuse to sell to you if they wish.

        • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Bot on Wednesday May 24 2017, @09:23PM (1 child)

          by Bot (3902) on Wednesday May 24 2017, @09:23PM (#515123) Journal

          1. Start a religious order which forbids anything but cash.
          2. Sue for discrimination when denied transaction.
          3. there is no point 3
          4. PROFIT!!!

          --
          Account abandoned.
          • (Score: 2) by Bot on Friday May 26 2017, @05:54AM

            by Bot (3902) on Friday May 26 2017, @05:54AM (#515848) Journal

            Oh wait, my AI factoid graph had not dug up this:

            It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name

            So, apparently, Christian religion cannot accept being forced to abandon cash, and for some interpretations the mark of the beast is already your personal identification ID wrt the tax system.

            Now, given that Christians should not accept usury either, I think I won't see a full scale rebellion. They should really be more fundamentalists about all this.

            --
            Account abandoned.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 24 2017, @06:23PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 24 2017, @06:23PM (#514997)

        Looks like it's time for a new law, then. I'm sure the US government, which desperately wants access to as much data about us as possible, will get right on that.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 24 2017, @07:17PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 24 2017, @07:17PM (#515048)

      It was only when I pointed out to them that cash is legal tender and that they can't refuse it,

      I don't know about where you are, but in the USA that is not true.
      Cash is legal tender for debts only. So if you had not consumed the beer, you owed no debt and they had no requirement to take your cash.