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Is a supermarket discount coupon worth giving away your privacy?
- zweep 7y agoIt's a hugely privileged point of view to think that people could pass up multiple dollars of discounts to preserve the rather abstract notion of their privacy. That's why this shit needs to be regulated with the force of law and not make unreasonable expectations of consumers.
- Animats 7y agoThat's why I don't shop at Safeway. There's a huge increase in price unless you have a "Safeway club card". Also, the lines are much shorter at Lucky's.
- LargoLasskhyfv 7y agoThat may be the case, but it's also different in different places. I never lived in something which is called a food desert, and had always multiple choices to shop, even in walking distance. From that point of view these coupon- and bonus programs were always ridiculous to me. Always paying cash. Not even per debit/credit card. Always ignoring any points which are valid for a limited amount of time for the equivalent of colored glass marbles. Edit: And while paying cash, don't forget switching off your smartphone, or other gadgets which spam their unique identifiers into all sorts of nets. (Before entering the shop, or even the parking space outside) Or not carrying one to begin with. Sounds crazy? I don't care. It's very relaxing :-)
- logicchains 7y agoOr, maybe they just care a lot less about privacy than you do. I'm certainly not poor but I'd happily save a couple dollars per shopping trip in exchange for the supermarket having more details on my shopping habits, and the majority of people I know act similarly. Just because you feel very strongly about something, doesn't mean other people are wrong because they don't care so much about it. Is it so hard to imagine that some people might actually be happy to give up a bit of purchasing information in exchange for paying less for things? It seems like the height of arrogance to demand that people not be allowed to do something without even asking them how they feel about doing it. Or maybe you don't need to ask them, because you know better than them?
- diffeomorphism 7y agoOh, no no. You see these people are happy to be exploited. It seems like the height of arrogance to demand that they cannot be exploited. But I don't feel exploited, so nobody else can possibly be right? Surely, you don't need to ask that, since you know better already.
- TulliusCicero 7y agoHow is it "exploiting" to give personal info in exchange for saving money? As long as what's going on is transparent -- which I think is something regulations are good for -- why is it exploitative? Are those rewards systems for filling out surveys also exploitative?
- humanrebar 7y agoIt's fair to say that tracking is not obviously disclaimed as part of the sign up process. The loyalty rewards are emphasized, often exclusively.
- TulliusCicero 7y agoRight, which is why I said regulations would be helpful for that.
- alpaca128 7y ago> As long as what's going on is transparent I wouldn't consider "middle of some license agreement" to be transparent enough, and I'm sure most people aren't fully aware of what data is tracked and how it can be used.
- TulliusCicero 7y agoSure, so regulations that focus on transparency would be good. That's different from saying that trading privacy for discounts is inherently exploitative.
- 7y ago
- vkou 7y ago> to preserve the rather abstract notion of their privacy. Not to mention that unless you're paying in gold coins, your credit/debit processor will sell all your payment flow, anyways.
- khc 7y agoThe rich and privileged never stops trying to take freedom away from the ignorant poor.
- Doubl 7y agoTesco give you an effective 1% discount on some future purchases for using their clubcard at the checkout, that's provided you use the coupons they send you periodically before they expire. I prefer to do as little shopping as possible there and instead shop at the far cheaper German discounter Lidl down the road. They don't have any of that loyalty crap.
- anon463637 7y agoDo you have ALDI Nord or Aldi there?
- loriverkutya 7y agoNot the parent but yes, we have.
- adrianN 7y agoIn Germany Lidl recently started an app that gives you discounts.
- Freak_NL 7y agoNetherlands too. Really disappointing.
- scarejunba 7y agoYes? Between this and my Amex Blue 6% cashback it's pretty good. Also, why on Earth would HN ask for my location https://imgur.com/a/RMOXa1d https://imgur.com/a/RMOXa1d That makes less sense.
- lol768 7y agoAre you sure there's no extension injecting JS or something into the page? I'm pretty sure this should never happen - you should probably reach out to hn@ycombinator.com about this
- scarejunba 7y agoIt's Chrome on Android, which doesn't do extensions, right? And I don't think Sonic is putting JS on the page. I wonder if it's a race that occurs when you just navigate past a page that _does_ ask. On the Pixel 3a there are noticeable pauses when browsing. Could be something like that.
- arminiusreturns 7y agoThe sad thing is they all are doing it and don't even need you to use any of their "discount cards" or whatever, they can just do credit card correlation with third parties and achieve all the same results without you ever agreeing to it. I compromised and got a card but never signed anything or registered it, so I still get discounts but I can't, for example, enter my phone number (I have to have the card for scanning on me). They are correlating the data anyway so I might as well save a buck or two.
- mixmastamyk 7y agoAlbertsons did away with their card for that reason but they also accept Apple Pay, so I believe I’m in the clear. TJs too.
- stirlo 7y agoContrary to the way it was marketed Apple Pay only randomises the credit card number when you add the card the first time. After that it’s the same card number being used for every transaction and traceable.
- axaxs 7y agoThis is incredibly wasteful. Back when I had a Kroger I would just play dumb and ask for the discount, even if I get a new card each time, because I refuse to carry their card. Not wanting to hold up their line, cashiers would either scan their own card or scan a new card and give it with a blank application, which I'd promptly trash. For those unfamiliar, they have laughably high prices on a lot of common items, unless you have your card which cuts the price in half. The gas stations would ask you if you had a card, and if you said you didn't want one, they'd scan one and throw it away. I assume it's because some higher up demands x percent new signups...for what? In the end they are just going to track me by my credit card, so what's the whole point of this song and dance?
- dawnerd 7y agoI signed up for a kroger account online with a fake number and information. Instead of a phone number they just asked for an alternative id, which of course they highly suggested being a phone number. No problems so far. (Slight pro tip, just enter in the stores phone number as an alt id - very good chance they'll have it registered) But you're right, they're just going to track you some other way.
- t34543 7y agoI also used 555-1212 etc but I used to shop at Harris Teeter and they flagged me. They knew who I was even when paying cash. I would get them to use the store card on occasion but they were strict and it was at manager discretion. To sign up for their crappy card they copied your ID, something I’m not ok with.
- drewg123 7y agoMy go to is to use the xxx-867-5309 from that 80's Jenny song. That works in most stores.
- kelnos 7y agoI usually do that one too. But I was in a Walgreens last week and tried it, and the cashier asked for my name after I entered it, gave me a disapproving look when I said it was my girlfriend "Jenny", and said it wasn't valid. I'd definitely successfully used it at that particular store before.
- SkyMarshal 7y agoJust use a burner email and fake or burner phone number for your supermarket rewards account.
- anon463637 7y agoGiving them false information maybe an option.. or even "unintentional" misspellings, off-by-one phone numbers, disposable email addresses and vacant lots. IANAL: Btw, has anyone asked a lawyer if this is a crime in any state or country?
- OJFord 7y agoI nearly exclusively order online and have it delivered, which seems to be much more commonplace in the UK than in North America, I've noticed. It saves me too much time and money, frankly, even though I'm otherwise quite privacy-conscious. (I won't scan my 'myWaitrose' card in-store when asked if I have one, for example, since it's 100% about tracking and gives me no benefit if I'm not claiming a free coffee/newspaper.) Besides, it would be hypocritical of me to shop on Amazon so much and then object to supermarket websites.
- anotheryou 7y agoAre they forbidden to or is it technical not possible to track by credit card?
- imgabe 7y agoThere's always the time honored tradition of giving a fake phone number. Giant even has a "Forgot my card" option on the self checkout that just gives you the discount without entering anything.
- amelius 7y agoAnother option is to periodically swap your card with a random person on the subway.
- tsherr 7y agoDepends. I got $360 in free groceries last year at one place so I think that was a fair trade. At the other store in town I got about $150. Better pay than I get for my privacy on the web.
- adtac 7y agoHypothetical example: and what happens when your insurance company buys this data 10 years down the line, sees that you've buying an awful lot of sugary soda very closely in line with people at risk of diabetes, and decides to increase your monthly premium? This is my favourite example of a consequence of loss of privacy. I've found it to be incredibly efficient at convincing even non-tech people (like my family) to be privacy-aware.
- planb 7y agoThen we as a society should decide if pricing people differently based on this kind of data should be legal (in my opinion it shouldn't for social insurance). But the probability that you indeed have a risk for diabetes is higher than if you'd only have bought broccoli.
- Freak_NL 7y agoAll these loyalty programs aren't there to give you a discount, they exist to fine the customers who don't participate.
- bitlevel 7y agoIf they can afford to give you a discount coupon, then the 'discount' is already built into the product. Non-compliant customers pay more as a result.
- xscott 7y agoYes. Even if they don't use your data (incredibly unlikely), they win just by scamming privacy conscious, or even apathetic, people into paying more.
- beatgammit 7y agoPerhaps, but at least in my area, I can just choose to shop somewhere that doesn't require a club card to get discounts. Most places have a club card where you get points to redeem in the form of cash back after some amount of spend, but the minimum redemption is so high that you'd have to make them your main store to get enough to redeem, so I doubt most people with a card actually redeem the points. Advertised prices don't need a card, except at 1-2 places (e.g. a rebranded Kroger store in my area). I just avoid places that require a card to get advertised prices, and my life is simpler (no recitation of my phone number, just a "no thanks"). However, everywhere asks for my phone number, so I can't help but feel like people are being coerced into tracking. I think we need to remind friends and whatnot that giving your phone number out quite often doesn't save you money, and just remember a short list of places where it does. For those places, I give my parents' number (they can have the fuel points or whatever), which makes the data fairly useless.
- LargoLasskhyfv 7y agoYou know? Whith all the ranting here about the pros and cons, maybe you should read about https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_tag#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_tag#History Edit: From my point of view the gathering of data is unnecessary. The shopped items are scanned by their barcodes at the cashiers point. This is enough to plan for restocking, in real time, with datamining considering time, location, events, holidays, whatnot. Everything else is superfluous, and just a lie. That simple.
- neonate 7y agohttp://archive.md/w1p71 http://archive.md/w1p71