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Well, this reminded me of the situation right here in the US. The other day I couldn't place an online order at CVS because it was repeatedly "having technical
by dinvlad 5y ago
Well, this reminded me of the situation right here in the US. The other day I couldn't place an online order at CVS because it was repeatedly "having technical difficulties". Turns out I had to unblock half a dozen (!) advertising domains in my Pihole (incl. the ones I've never heard of) to finally place an order. I don't know how to treat it as "I have a choice whether to do business with them" ;-)
I guess the only way to protect my privacy in this case is to risk going to the physical store with other sick people atm.
- mindslight 5y agoI handle this pragmatically by using different VMs with assorted browsers, browser configs, and exit addresses. For the context of buying from CVS (realworld nym, heavy surveillance), I'm running NoScript and slowly enable domains until the site works. Doing this for some sites actually speeds them up considerably (eg Home Depot).
- dinvlad 5y agoThe problem is in this case, no amount of blocking will work, because the site was completely broken without those, at least for me :-) Though I can reduce the amount of divulged info for sure, but the very fact they're using them means my order details likely go to third-parties, and it's impossible to prevent that because it relies on that reporting in the chain of logic (i.e. order won't proceed until a successful response from the advertising APIs). The only technical way around that I can think of is to implement Signal's and other's API proxies and let it return back fake info to the site. But I'm not that obsessed about this issue :-) Another over-the-top way is to place the order directly against CVS APIs, using their cookies etc. Again, not worth spending time on..
- TedDoesntTalk 5y agoWhy not just avoid CVS and use another pharmacy (online ordering). I use valisure because they also test the medications they sell for impurities, but there are plenty of others… like even supermarket pharmacies have online ordering now with home delivery or pickup.
- jessaustin 5y agoSome medical insurances require using CVS. One might be surprised by how shitty that is, but if so one has forgotten how shitty it is to live in a jurisdiction where medical insurance is a thing that is necessary.
- _jal 5y ago> I guess the only way to protect my privacy in this case is to risk going to the physical store Never give them your phone number. They suckered me, and it took multiple calls to a very slow call center to get the text messages to stop. And I couldn't get them to just delete it - it had to be done as a number change. So my number is now 415.555.1212.
- dinvlad 5y agoOh don't get me started on that! I already gave, and regretted it ever since. There's no way to stop those messages now. I even called them and they stopped for a while, and are now back in full force, right after my recent order. Incidentally, I've even discovered what seems to be one of (probably many) security issues on it (one where you could see other person's order details without authentication, in this case for myself), but I'm not gonna report it because they likely don't even have a bounty program and it was likely a "feature" implemented intentionally.
- Ansil849 5y ago> Never give them your phone number. Give them Jenny's number: (your local area code) 867-5309 It works way more often than you'd think, and if no one has yet made a store loyalty account with the number, you can be the first and add to the movement :). Use this trick whenever you need a loyalty card to get a store discount.