Thanks Phil, no offense taken with your reply.
On reflection of my response, you are right, and I agree it would have been better if I’d have “Asked for a printed receipt please”. However, at no stage was I discourteous or disrespectful to the salesman, during our conversation.
At the time, I quickly thought that this was a sneaky, and deceitful way that JB Hi-Fi were wanting to get my mobile number, so that they could bombard me with sales text messages.
I remain unconvinced that the motive for wanting a digital receipt was not the main reason to save money, rather than to send me spam text messages.
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After much reluctance, similar to your own, I now usually accept the digital receipts offered as well as get printed ones. For record I have never received a JB spam SMS.
Cheers,
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While I agree that it is a nightmare, the old saw that ‘there is no such thing as a free lunch comes to mind’. Being under constant surveillance is the price to pay for the convenience of being able to do all those things that we have become used to doing on our smart phones and tablets etc…
The lack of disclosure is the real problem because people can’t choose to engage or disengage from the surveillance if they don’t know it is a condition of use of an app. As has been noted, ‘the horse has long bolted’, so it may be too late to stop the tracking. BUT it is not too late to inform users so they can decide if they are willing to pay the price Big Brother wants.
It is a Brave New World!
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The particular shock here is that this data is collected in places one doesn’t expect. As highlighted above Square (despite charging merchants for their service) also tracks users.
The one that caught me out is Pokémon Go. Although the app is free, it’s consistently been one of the highest grossing apps on the app store (so they definitely make money off the app microtransactions). Before allowing it location permissions, I read the privacy policy in detail and confirmed data is only handled by Niantic and service providers. After reading that article I checked the policy again, and found a line that specifies ‘This privacy policy applies to data which can or could identify you.’ Theoretically they can justify the collection and sale of location data under that clause. I have emailed their privacy contact for more information.
So it’s not so much no free lunches, more ‘You see lunch, they see a buffet’
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Nor have I. I dont have any hesitation in providing my # to them or Apple. Come to think of it, I’ve never had spam SMS.
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The GoodGuys and GetToolsDirect will send text messages with specials and Sales. Both use a mobile phone number to locate your customer record. Street address and fixed line if you have one change for too many of us faster than the current PM?
I get the same from at least two local agricultural machinery suppliers, one of whom only had a contact from when I requested a quote. There is also at least two real estate agents and an insurance service provider on the list. Some in the past offered a simple option to reply with ‘Stop’. I’ve not had a problem getting the SMS stopped with any big name Aussie business.
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In Australia, businesses must provide an option to unsubscribe from such messages.
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I had to refer to a JB HiFi receipt today, but I couldn’t find it. Luckily I had the digital receipt that was messaged to me stored in my JB HiFi online account.
I’ve had occasions recently where they haven’t asked me for my number to get a digital receipt. Also a couple of months ago when asked for my number, I just said I was making the purchase for work so only needed the paper copy, and that was no problem.
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Hopefully they did not record your toilet visit?
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And even Governments can screw up peoples privacy.
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Yes they can! It does show how weak systems can be when people are involved.
But not really anonymous data that has been collected without any personal identification or permission. More like essential personal data provided with intent and for a required purpose.
The ATO knows where we all live, sort of. The Vehicle registration has our address as well as for our license and a whole bucket load of other government departments do too.
Once upon a time home address was something readily deduced for some from the everyday phone book.
As for Elton John and some others, just ask Google Maps. The mansions or castles of many of the rich and famous are far from well kept secrets.
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Good news. I heard back from a privacy contact who directed me to a second privacy policy that covers location data as personal data. Therefore Niantic don’t hand that data over to any third parties outside of service providers.
