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from the free-coffee-and-donut-should-do-it dept.
A while back, we read about how Tim Hortons' app tracked users' movements throughout the day, whether the app was open or not. The tracker noted locations visited, including homes, workplaces, and competing coffee chains.
Now, after an investigation by Canada's privacy commissioner, to resolve a class action lawsuit, Tim Hortons have suggested a settlement:
Tim Hortons says it has reached a proposed settlement in multiple class-action lawsuits alleging the restaurant's mobile app violated customer privacy which would see the restaurant offer a free coffee and doughnut to affected users.
The company says the settlement, negotiated with the legal teams involved in the lawsuits, still requires court approval.
The coffee and doughnut chain says the deal would see eligible app users receive a free hot beverage and baked good.
Tim Hortons says in court documents it would also permanently delete any geolocation information it may have collected between April 1, 2019 and Sept. 30, 2020, and direct third-party service providers to do the same.
One free drink and a donut: We value your privacy (at a couple of bucks)?
Previous story: Tim Hortons Coffee App Broke Law by Constantly Recording Users' Movements
(Score: 3, Informative) by looorg on Tuesday August 02 2022, @11:41AM (12 children)
I do not find any mention of how many "affected users" there are in this case. How many "free" doughnuts and cups of coffee will be served? After all not everyone that frequents TM will have the app and so fort so it's not every customer. Also some users might have only been affected a few times but others have been constantly violated for over a year. So the value of the compensation per user might differ greatly.
That they are deleting all the geolocation information collected etc means nothing. The project is already completed, the data has been collected, it has been analyzed and the reports have been written and the knowledge gained utilized.
There is no undelete on the damage to privacy. If they only value it at one hot beverage and one baked good per affected user one wonders what the actual value of it was. How much did Tim Horton gain from it if they can give away free stuff. After all this little endeavor was not made at a loss.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by RS3 on Tuesday August 02 2022, @12:01PM (11 children)
Being a pretty strong privacy advocate, if it was up to me I would demand full investigation. I'm not as worried about Tim Hortons as I am who else conspired in this, and what data they have.
To each person who was spied on, I would compel Tim Hortons to show them what was recorded, when, etc. Then, who this data was shared with / sold to when and why.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by kazzie on Tuesday August 02 2022, @12:09PM (6 children)
I'm minded to cite this case the next time someone asks me "why not just install this app on your phone? It's perfectly secure..."
(Score: 5, Interesting) by RS3 on Tuesday August 02 2022, @01:01PM (5 children)
Absolutely. I have very few apps on my phones. When I first started using a "smartphone" about 5 years ago I found apkpure.com. Not that it's so trustable, but I did not have nor want a Google account.
Anyway, I had downloaded and installed a little WiFi signal monitor / graphing app. It was great. Suddenly one day it disappeared! Including the .apk file that was in the phone's "downloads" directory! That experience creeped me out and made me 100% leery of trusting smartphones, at all.
I've uninstalled and/or disabled all unnecessary apps. I don't do anything financial / business on the phones, and I've almost never even looked at email on the phones- except the gmail my company foisted on me, and the google gmail and chat apps we use (grumble). In other words, nothing important or personal to me is in any phone. Okay, maybe contacts list, but few lastnames are in that.
In another discussion user RamiK mentioned [soylentnews.org] using pcapdroid to track and block IP traffic. I've downloaded it and am anxious to try it.
(Score: 3, Informative) by NotSanguine on Tuesday August 02 2022, @02:31PM (4 children)
I suggest trying out LineageOS [lineageos.org] and MicroG [microg.org].
Not only does LineageOS have decent privacy features, but also MicroG doesn't phone home to Google.
And of course, there's the venerable (and relatively trustworthy) F-Droid [f-droid.org] app repository. Although minimizing the apps you install is always a good thing!
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Tuesday August 02 2022, @04:04PM (3 children)
Wow, thank you so much. I had heard of LineageOS ( CyanogenMod) and had downloaded it for an older phone, but just haven't gotten around to trying it. Didn't want to mess up the phones I need. I had _not_ heard of MicroG, and I don't think I looked into F-Droid.
I'm having a much bigger issue with my 3-rd party phone provider. I've been on AT&T network, and last Feb. they dropped 3G. No problem, my 3 main phones are all 4G LTE.
Oops, AT&T completely disabled my LG phone that was working very well on VoLTE for about 2 weeks, and had been on their approved phone list, that they suddenly decided to drop from the list.
Samsung phone does voice and data, but no hotspot, which I need because I have no land-based Internet at home - don't want to deal with the big jerk companies and why spend $ if I already have enough phone data.
ASUS phone does data and hotspot very efficiently, but does not have VoLTE.
So I'm moving SIM card back and forth if I need to make a call, going to wear it out. Not been fun. Provider keeps saying they're fixing it, escalating it, resetting it, etc., but nothing has changed. I'm afraid to lose what little functionality I have.
I have _no_ T-Mobile RF where I live. Online coverage map says I should have good coverage.
AT&T coverage map says I should have no coverage. It's weak but works.
Verizon is the option but I get 1/2 the data allotment and it might cost more $ (for less data...)
5G might be the answer. I need to look into 5G coverage maps, etc. I don't want to spend more $.
All this and my life is beyond full up and I just don't have time to mess with yet another phone (hours and weeks of setting it up...).
One big unknown- in light of the above issues, will LineageOS or MicroG be better at AT&T connectivity, or will the aholes block me completely if they don't like the phone OS they see? And can I spoof the phone OS to make them happy?
(Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Tuesday August 02 2022, @04:21PM (2 children)
Not sure where you are, but my Verizon plan has unlimited talk, text and data for ~$90/month.
Can't get much more data than unlimited, eh?
Then again, that plan may not be offered where you are. If so, more's the pity.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 3, Interesting) by RS3 on Tuesday August 02 2022, @07:51PM
I'm sure that Verizon plan is available, but, I bought a nationwide (USA) prepaid plan through a 3rd-party provider. It's really good price- I pay $30 / month for unlimited talk and text, 20 GB / month data cap, on AT&T or T-Mobile.
Better yet- I paid $360 for the whole year. No monthly anything- no charges, no fees, nothing other than data cap. And I have never run out. They do not carry unused bytes over, unfortunately. I have enough various work places, library, etc., with full out WiFi that I don't worry about my data- I do big downloads at work (4 places).
I have a T-Mobile SIM card in one phone. I get great reception a few hundred feet from my house, and anywhere I go, but literally zero at home. Phone just says: "searching..." I've tried holding it outside a 2nd floor window, in the direction of the 1 cell tower near me. No joy.
Verizon plan for the same $ is 8 GB / month (iirc).
I was looking into 5G coverage maps, but I do not trust them. T-Mobile shows great map resolution, and that I should get full 4G and most 5G coverage. Sigh.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Tuesday August 02 2022, @11:22PM
I just talked to T-Mobile and they claim they put in a work order to look into antenna / RF pattern problems. Not holding my breath, but I'll be quite amazed if they fix it.
BTW, everyone was super nice and helpful. English somewhat weak, but such nice helpful people makes up for it.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday August 02 2022, @12:45PM (3 children)
If the Canadian government wanted to spy on its citizens, then running it through Tim Hortons would be a great way to do it. They're everywhere, everyone goes to them, and the government would have plausible deniability if it ever got out.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 02 2022, @07:57PM (2 children)
I don't understand why someone modded this "troll". Totally misusing moderation. Person should lose mod points for at least 1 month, 2 would be better. No, I'm not new here, just sick of the jerks.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday August 02 2022, @09:28PM (1 child)
It's personal animosity from whomever modded it that way. I could say, "The sky is blue" or "water is wet," and they'd still mod me troll.
It's sad, but there are some in the world who think everyone else is a pack of hobgoblins. The only thing we can do is carry on.
Thanks for speaking up.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 02 2022, @11:27PM
You don't deserve that crap. You have a nice view of it though, thanks.
I'm not so optimistic- I'm concerned about people who have an "ax to grind", are "triggered", carry grudges, anger, etc. We've had too many of them doing very bad things in society.
I don't (yet?) know the guts of the rehash code, but it'd be nice if the system would identify such idiots to the admins, and mod-ban them.
Thanks for all your great contributions here. :)