I requested a copy of my data from McDonald’s loyalty program and received an extensive, personalized report that algorithmically predicts my next purchase.
Weak sauce news tbh. I consider myself pretty privacy minded. But McDonald’s using my username or even my credit card to track… What McDonald’s items I purchase… From which McDonald’s… I dunno. I don’t mind it tbh. It’s who they sell it to (health insurance, maybe?) that may be a problem. But this report doesn’t include that anyways.
It does? There’s a line near the end about how it can paint a scary accurate picture of where you’re going to be and when, but again that in itself isn’t really a problem for McDonald’s to know if they aren’t selling it people. If they’re just using it to figure out when I’m going to buy burger, then I think that’s fair game. I know that they’re trying to sell me burger. That’s why I go there. But of course the real potential problem is what else they use the data for.
The actual journalism equivalent of this article would include investigation into who they sell this data to, and for what purposes do the buyers use it, etc. Sure we can probably assume they are selling this info to health insurance companies, but if I’m doing the presuming then this article is doing nothing. You know what I mean? Without info on where the rubber meets the road it’s just airy speculation.
I’ve never seen a “privacy minded person” downplay a powerful corporation surveilling its customers. Quite the opposite. People with a privacy mindset would see a red flag with a loyalty plan, and this article explains it in.
Disliking the article is a different topic. I think it’s fine - it trusts the average person will understand intuitively that this surveillance is bad, but for extra detail, they linked a 41 page report that explains how loyalty programs are used to abuse customers.
I hope you didn’t mean to imply that this private data is not sold to insurance companies. Unless the article states otherwise, one should assume your eating habits are being sold to insurance providers . Privacy Policies are written by lawyers for a reason.
Weak sauce news tbh. I consider myself pretty privacy minded. But McDonald’s using my username or even my credit card to track… What McDonald’s items I purchase… From which McDonald’s… I dunno. I don’t mind it tbh. It’s who they sell it to (health insurance, maybe?) that may be a problem. But this report doesn’t include that anyways.
The article makes a great case for why privacy-minded people should care
It does? There’s a line near the end about how it can paint a scary accurate picture of where you’re going to be and when, but again that in itself isn’t really a problem for McDonald’s to know if they aren’t selling it people. If they’re just using it to figure out when I’m going to buy burger, then I think that’s fair game. I know that they’re trying to sell me burger. That’s why I go there. But of course the real potential problem is what else they use the data for.
The actual journalism equivalent of this article would include investigation into who they sell this data to, and for what purposes do the buyers use it, etc. Sure we can probably assume they are selling this info to health insurance companies, but if I’m doing the presuming then this article is doing nothing. You know what I mean? Without info on where the rubber meets the road it’s just airy speculation.
I’ve never seen a “privacy minded person” downplay a powerful corporation surveilling its customers. Quite the opposite. People with a privacy mindset would see a red flag with a loyalty plan, and this article explains it in.
Disliking the article is a different topic. I think it’s fine - it trusts the average person will understand intuitively that this surveillance is bad, but for extra detail, they linked a 41 page report that explains how loyalty programs are used to abuse customers.
I hope you didn’t mean to imply that this private data is not sold to insurance companies. Unless the article states otherwise, one should assume your eating habits are being sold to insurance providers . Privacy Policies are written by lawyers for a reason.