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Straw man indeed. I'm no expert on any of this but it seems more than a stretch to even begin to imply that a small local pizzeria is collecting information. I

Straw man indeed. I'm no expert on any of this but it seems more than a stretch to even begin to imply that a small local pizzeria is collecting information. I can understand that a chain pizzeria would certainly be involved in collection of data for profit and marketing research. But the local pizza joint? Laughable.

rz2k 8y ago
How about their credit card processor? And, then if the credit card processor incentivizes merchants to share the names of products sold rather than just the total charged? Especially if they give you a point of sale system, and it automatically generates reports for tracking sales tax or ties into accounting software for small businesses, it’s difficult to imagine them not joining such a program and choosing to do paperwork manually instead. The author says he gets about $400/month from ads, but would stop if the cost/effort to comply was more than that. It sounds like the service didn’t just outsource the process of finding advertisers who want to display an ad, it also outsources the collection of data about visitors and selling it to data brokers. Whether the law is bad has a lot to do with whether it is beneficial or not to have every blog and every local pizza shop involved in selling customer data. The services that are paying $400/month for negligible additional effort are not going to be unaware of legislation, and will adapt their practices to comply with whatever privacy standards are chosen by the society where they operate. If $300 of that income comes from data brokers rather than advertisers then that part of the income simply wouldn’t be legal without extra work, and it is the prerogative of societies to make such decisions about the property rights of data.
UncleEntity 8y ago
Pizza joints have been using caller ID to tell your address for, like, forever. Also probably doesn't matter what they do with the data but the mere fact they have it means they have to comply with all the requirements of this new law so even if they just use it so you don't have to tell them your address every time you call they still have to treat it like they are selling it to some marketing megacorp.
- astura 8y ago
  My pizza place has software that keeps my credit card number for delivery for my address plus calling phone number. They'll ask "do you want to pay with Visa ending in 1234?"
Fnoord 8y ago
"Unfortunately, the law overshot this goal; it reaches most businesses, online or off. Facebook may have been the target, but the local pizzeria will bear the law’s brunt. Specifically, the law reaches businesses that collect personal information from 50,000-plus consumers per year, regardless of revenue. This applies to businesses that accept credit cards from 137-plus unique customers per day, including Walmart, Amazon, and a typical frozen yogurt stand" 1) 50000 / 365,25 = 136,89 and 50000 / 365 = 136,986. That's 137 unique customers per day, over the entire year. 2) This number does not take into account paying by cash. I know, I know, Americans love credit cards. But for a simple frozen yogurt stand everyone uses credit card? Really??? 3) This number does not take into account returning customers over the entire year. Many customers are going to be regular, loyal customers. Depends on location and such (touristy area probably far less). 4) Revenue can be gamed...

rz2k 8y ago

How about their credit card processor? And, then if the credit card processor incentivizes merchants to share the names of products sold rather than just the total charged? Especially if they give you a point of sale system, and it automatically generates reports for tracking sales tax or ties into accounting software for small businesses, it’s difficult to imagine them not joining such a program and choosing to do paperwork manually instead. The author says he gets about $400/month from ads, but would stop if the cost/effort to comply was more than that. It sounds like the service didn’t just outsource the process of finding advertisers who want to display an ad, it also outsources the collection of data about visitors and selling it to data brokers. Whether the law is bad has a lot to do with whether it is beneficial or not to have every blog and every local pizza shop involved in selling customer data. The services that are paying $400/month for negligible additional effort are not going to be unaware of legislation, and will adapt their practices to comply with whatever privacy standards are chosen by the society where they operate. If $300 of that income comes from data brokers rather than advertisers then that part of the income simply wouldn’t be legal without extra work, and it is the prerogative of societies to make such decisions about the property rights of data.

UncleEntity 8y ago

Pizza joints have been using caller ID to tell your address for, like, forever. Also probably doesn't matter what they do with the data but the mere fact they have it means they have to comply with all the requirements of this new law so even if they just use it so you don't have to tell them your address every time you call they still have to treat it like they are selling it to some marketing megacorp.

astura 8y ago
My pizza place has software that keeps my credit card number for delivery for my address plus calling phone number. They'll ask "do you want to pay with Visa ending in 1234?"

Fnoord 8y ago

"Unfortunately, the law overshot this goal; it reaches most businesses, online or off. Facebook may have been the target, but the local pizzeria will bear the law’s brunt. Specifically, the law reaches businesses that collect personal information from 50,000-plus consumers per year, regardless of revenue. This applies to businesses that accept credit cards from 137-plus unique customers per day, including Walmart, Amazon, and a typical frozen yogurt stand" 1) 50000 / 365,25 = 136,89 and 50000 / 365 = 136,986. That's 137 unique customers per day, over the entire year. 2) This number does not take into account paying by cash. I know, I know, Americans love credit cards. But for a simple frozen yogurt stand everyone uses credit card? Really??? 3) This number does not take into account returning customers over the entire year. Many customers are going to be regular, loyal customers. Depends on location and such (touristy area probably far less). 4) Revenue can be gamed...