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Google starts tracking what people buy in physical stores

latimes.com

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Re: Google starts tracking what people buy in physical stores

#51

Post by omarchowdhury »

wavefunction wrote: post #22
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember reading an article a few years ago about Facebook doing this. It's also why some merchants will ask for your phone number, even if you pay in cash. With your phone number, the merchant can identify you. In Facebook's case, they know what ads they show you online, then they can tie any subsequent purchases tagged with your phone number back to your FB account.

Sounds like another company claiming credit for something it didn't actually do. facebook showed me ChristianMingle ads for years despite marking myself as agnostic. I have a fair amount of experience with the Ad-words network and all I can see of facebook's ad network and target is that it sucks. I've never seen any place I've worked have much success deriving any meaningful value from facebook ads.

What if ChristianMingle was OK with attracting agnostic to their site? I mean, you don't have to be Christian to want a partner and agnostic can also be synonymous with open.

Re: Google starts tracking what people buy in physical stores

#52

Post by lowglow »

hackuser wrote: post #17

There are anonymized credit card services, including pre-paid and other solutions. The following is based on notes at least a year old, and I haven't tried them: * Abine * Final https://getfinal.com/ * Privacy Inc. https://privacy.com/ Also, many pre-paid cards require the user to identify themselves before the card is activated

I'm not sure why you're getting down voted. This is reasonable contribution.

Re: Google starts tracking what people buy in physical stores

#54

Post by ekianjo »

creepydata wrote: post #44
mattnewton wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They won't in the medium term because of how much they hate the credit card company's cut. 3% is a lot on an already low-margin transaction at Walmart.

Walmart wouldn't take credit if it wasn't financially sound for them to do so.

It still has transaction costs.

Re: Google starts tracking what people buy in physical stores

#55

Post by ashark »

yborg wrote: post #26
thinkling wrote: post #4

FTA: "Google says it has access to roughly 70% of U.S. credit and debit card transactions through partnerships with companies that track that data." Wow.

I'm actually surprised that retailers haven't started surcharging people paying in cash by now in order to drive all of individuals' transaction data into the panopticon.

Many do, effectively. See: loyalty cards with special pricing or rewards attached. Membership cards for Costco or Sam's, though there are other reasons for those, too.

Stacking that stuff and CC rewards can save you several percent of your retail spending a year. Paying cash is like paying sales tax twice.

[EDIT] to be clear, you effectively pay more to not be tracked in general, not just for avoiding a CC. Loyalty cards get you regardless of payment method. Also, lots of stores try really hard to get you to take "their" credit card (god, Target won't shut up about it) with unusually good rewards or discounts at their store. You can bet they get access to those data, including when you use it other places, even if Visa or MasterCard services it (and also gets the data)

Re: Google starts tracking what people buy in physical stores

#56

Post by trumpcoder »

adjkant wrote: post #20
paradite wrote: post #12

Now I will have to seriously consider getting off the Google ecosystem now. Deactivating facebook was okay, but Google might be tricky considering many of website accounts use Google authentication.

Okay, this is a small rant that is not directly aimed at you, so nothing personal. This is aimed generally more at people in the privacy at all costs camp and the like. If there's some viewpoint I'm missing here I'd also love to hear it, so it's not really a mean-spirited rant either. Google owns the internet at this point. For general use purposes, they ARE the internet. So avoiding them should really have at least…

This is a bunch of baloney.

I have been off Google for many years now and I don't miss anything as far as I can tell. I still use their search engine but because I don't use gmail, I refuse Google's cookies and I change my IP address regularly, they cannot track me.

The real question is the opposite. What is that those Google fanatics get from Google that they couldn't get otherwise that is worth giving Google their entire private lives?

I never understood the psychological pull that Google has on people.

Google is every bit as evil as any other profit seeking corporation. Only, whereas a company like say Pepsico, just wants you to buy their product, Google wants to spy on you every second of your life. Why is that people put up with this is beyond me.

Re: Google starts tracking what people buy in physical stores

#57

Post by khn1 »

adjkant wrote: post #36
__david__ wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know, I think it's easier than you make it out to be. I don't use gmail, I have Duck Duck Go as my main search engine, I don't log into Google in my main browser. I just don't use anything on a regular basis that needs a google login. When I do, I open Chrome and log in there, so it doesn't taint my main browser. It hasn't affected my life or my career negatively (or at all, really).

That's a fair answer, and I'm sure one that many share. Thanks for addressing the question directly - I see how for a minority of users, the switch makes sense. I guess for me, I don't care enough to make all those changes. As a Chrome user, the sync across things is nice, and I enjoy the interface. I'll take the ease at risk of someone having my data in a catastrophic situation. Obviously, your choice makes great se…

> I guess for me, I don't care enough to make all those changes.

Up until I read this article, I used to feel the opposite way. I think there is some value in everyone having privacy and personal space. It gives us an opportunity to decompress and relieve some of the stresses of our increasingly connected world.

However, discovering that Google (and others) are merging my online and offline behavior is making me doubt my viewpoint (the 70% figure really hit hard). If I can't escape it, why not just be apart of it? Surely life is a bit simpler: not having to pay for email, better search results (DDG vs Google)... It seems that whether you want to or not, you _will_ become part of the google/facebook/etc ecosystem.

The other reason I used non-google services was in some ways to "hedge" my position. By using a non-google email with a custom domain, I am not tied down to any email provider (note: I bought the domain explicitly for email use). If I ever became unsatisfied with my email service, I could always switch to a different provider without the hassle of creating a new email address. Now, maybe this is just a defeatist view, but I think google/facebook are too big to fail. If google disappeared tomorrow or in 10 years, there would be chaos -too much of the world depends on it. Does this give them enough power to exist in perpetuity? Maybe it's time to just cave in and use all google services. It sure is cheaper.

Re: Google starts tracking what people buy in physical stores

#58

Post by mc32 »

Cyphase wrote: post #46
a3_nm wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's very important to keep making as many purchases in cash as possible, precisely for this reason. At least where I live (France), this is very doable. Cash is an anonymous payment system which cannot be traced and is widely accepted. It's something that would be impossible to bootstrap today if it didn't already exist. Hence, it's crucial to keep it alive.

> Cash is an anonymous payment system which cannot be traced ... I just wanted to point out the possibility of tracking serial numbers on bills. Obviously it's not going to be as reliable, at least not now, but it could be made more so; for instance, if there was a sudden movement to use more cash for privacy. Of course, that seems unlikely; most people like the convenience of plastic/digital payments, and there's a…

It is possible to track the serials, if they wanted to; however, except for banks, I have not exchanged cash with a retailer who scans the bills at the point of transaction and if they did, they'd also have to tie a given ser no with me at the time of purchase. Since a particular bill will go through many hands, it'd be like trying to figure out who made a change on a system when it was done by 'root' or 'administrator' where the whole team logs in as root or admin. Basically attribution would be kinda inaccurate.

Re: Google starts tracking what people buy in physical stores

#59

Post by tyingq »

hackuser wrote: post #17

There are anonymized credit card services, including pre-paid and other solutions. The following is based on notes at least a year old, and I haven't tried them: * Abine * Final https://getfinal.com/ * Privacy Inc. https://privacy.com/ Also, many pre-paid cards require the user to identify themselves before the card is activated

I didn't downvote, but some of those only help so much. Your name is still in the track data, and for credit you generally have to input a zip code. For online purchases, you're entering an address as well.

Re: Google starts tracking what people buy in physical stores

#60

Post by bobbles »

__david__ wrote: post #31
adjkant wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Okay, this is a small rant that is not directly aimed at you, so nothing personal. This is aimed generally more at people in the privacy at all costs camp and the like. If there's some viewpoint I'm missing here I'd also love to hear it, so it's not really a mean-spirited rant either. Google owns the internet at this point. For general use purposes, they ARE the internet. So avoiding them should really have at least…

I don't know, I think it's easier than you make it out to be. I don't use gmail, I have Duck Duck Go as my main search engine, I don't log into Google in my main browser. I just don't use anything on a regular basis that needs a google login. When I do, I open Chrome and log in there, so it doesn't taint my main browser. It hasn't affected my life or my career negatively (or at all, really).

Unfortunately now anything you buy in person using non-cash is likely being tracked by them anyway
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