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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: 2) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday August 02 2022, @09:34PM (5 children)
I know this story is about the Tim Hortons app and its privacy concerns, but as it's a donut chain I wanted to chime in on its business: it is a convenient place to get donuts and coffee because it is ubiquitous, just like Dunkin' Donuts is, but it and Dunkin' don't have the best donuts. The Donut Plant [doughnutplant.com] is the best place I've been to in recent memory.
Do other Soylentils have good donut shop recommendations?
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Tuesday August 02 2022, @11:31PM (1 child)
Some people like Krispy Kreme [wikipedia.org].
Also Entenmann's [wikipedia.org].
Now I'm hungry for junk food...
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Freeman on Wednesday August 03 2022, @02:01PM
Krispy Kreme is pretty tasty, but there's just about nothing like a freshly made mom'n'pop Apple Fritter. One of the big Apple Fritters, not some H-E-B/Walmart "donut sized" Apple Fritter with barely any apple to it.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 03 2022, @01:30AM
There's a number of similar shops operating in at least the US mid-Atlantic that work on the principle of made-to-order donuts. You mark your requirements for glazes, coatings, and toppings, and they make the donut on the spot. They use an automatic machine that puts out a cake donut and moves it along a hot oil chute, flips it at one point, then comes out the other end where someone takes it while it is still hot and dips and/or dregs it through the requested toppings. You get them still pretty warm and they are pretty tasty. Two chains that I can think of off the top of my head are Duck Donuts [duckdonuts.com] (I believe they first started in Duck, NC) and The Fractured Prune [fracturedprune.com]. I know I've seen at least one other, whose name escapes me. I bet they all use the same donut machine.
As for big chains, I used to prefer Mr. Donut [mister-donut.com] to Dunkin Donuts, but they essentially were bought out and replaced by Dunkins in the early 90s. Back in the day my friends and I did a road trip up I-81 through PA and north of Montreal, hitting Mr. Donuts all the way up for coffee and donuts to keep us driving.
Nowadays, I don't care for big chain donuts. Dunkins are meh and Krispy Kremes are just sugar bombs that I find too cloying by the time I finish one. So I seek out small or local bakeries for donuts with hit-or-miss results.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Thursday August 04 2022, @01:45PM (1 child)
You know what else is ubiquitous? Independent, non-franchised coffee shops where you can buy coffee, pastries, etc. just as conveniently without most of the profit going to a huge amoral corporation with lots of economic power to abuse, and whose only loyalty is to their own profit margins.
You're not buying convenience or quality by going to Tim Hortons, Dunkin Donuts, Starbucks, etc., you're buying predictability. A completely predictable experience of ordering from a predictable menu and getting predictably mediocre items that some idiot off the street can be quickly trained to prepare for near-minimum wage.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Friday August 05 2022, @03:02AM
Those are the sorts of places I was after. When I was a kid there were lots of independent donut shops that made their own donuts, really good donuts, but the Donut Plant in Brooklyn I mentioned before is the only one I know of now.
We're about to start our family road trip tomorrow and I was hoping somebody might mention places between New York and the Rocky Mountains.
Washington DC delenda est.