I'm about to give up.
On the one hand, I see countless people get loyalty cards and enjoy discounts on their purchases. They connect with friends on Facebook and Twitter. They use apps on android or apple smartphones to give them turn-by-turn directions, find out where their friends are, or find places of interest. Their e-mail is "in the cloud" where they can get to it from multiple places. They use services like dropbox to share files. They get their news on-line and read e-books. I could go on and on.
On the other hand, I see opportunities for tracking and profiling in every one of those activities. So much so that it seems like one would be under constant observation and surveillance. We are just data points to be sliced and diced and marketed to — a society of consumers rather than customers.
So, I've got a major "ick factor" knowing about these practices and yet I'm hard-pressed to explain any negative consequences to otherwise intelligent people. "I don't do anything that's THAT interesting." "I've done nothing wrong, so I don't worry about it." "I like getting the bonuses and discounts."
Yet, I see companies expend great amounts of money implementing tracking mechanisms such as cookies, super-cookies, clear gifs, as well as huge databases of purchases, travels, and interests. I don't believe they are doing this for purely philanthropic reasons.
In no particular order, I include these for consideration:
I use a variety of Addons while browsing the web using Pale Moon: a custom HOSTS file, Self-Destructing Cookies, Ad-Block Plus, Ghostery, NoScript, Better Privacy, Flashblock, and Ref Control. I have a firewall and use anti-virus products. "In real life" I prefer to use cash over charge cards for my purchases. I have no loyalty cards.
What say you Soylentils? Am I being unreasonably paranoid? Or not paranoid enough? What dangers, really, are there? Why not sign up for all those loyalty cards and social apps? What privacy protections do YOU use?
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 13 2015, @12:51PM
It works well as a short-term weight loss plan, but I can't recommend "simply don't buy groceries" as a lifestyle.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 13 2015, @12:56PM
> It works well as a short-term weight loss plan, but I can't recommend "simply don't buy groceries" as a lifestyle.
Here is a short list of places in the USA that sell groceries and do not have loyalty cards, they cover the entire spectrum of pricing:
Wal-mart
Market Basket
Aldi
Trader Joes
Whole Foods
Sprouts
Save-a-Lot
Target
Various produce stands & farmers' markets
(Score: 2) by tadas on Wednesday May 13 2015, @01:31PM
....Shopper's Food Warehouse......
(Score: 2) by Kromagv0 on Wednesday May 13 2015, @03:08PM
Not quite correct. Target while not having a card has something probably more egregious, a smartphone app called cartwheel [target.com] that gives you discounts on a rotating subset of things. I tried it and there are very few things that I get a discount on as I don't buy much of any premade food. While I do buy premade stuff (bread, pasta/noodles, salsa) they are low margin items and don't get a special discount very often if at all.
T-Shirts and bumper stickers [zazzle.com] to offend someone
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 13 2015, @11:58PM
Do they only have megacorporations where you are?
Have all the locally-owned shops folded?
I guess I'm lucky where I live.
There are places here [google.com] that are large enough to have decent prices but small enough to not have the abusive practices of the multinationals.
...and I can't imagine applying for a loyalty card that requires verified data.
Heh. Just for fun, I can imagine constantly exchanging cards with someone else to further mess with the data collection.
-- gewg_