←back to thread

1957 points apokryptein | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.331s | source
Show context
inahga ◴[] No.42910118[source]

There are quite a few interesting tracking flows out there.

My rent is paid through a company called Bilt.

I discovered that when I shop at Walgreens now, Bilt sends me an email containing the full receipt of what I bought like so:

    > Hey [inahga],
    >
    > You shopped at Walgreens on 12/1/24 and earned Bilt Points with your
    > Neighborhood Pharmacy benefit.
    >
    > Items eligible for rewards
    > TOSTITOS HINT OF LIME RSTC 11OZ
    > $3.50
    > 
    > +3 pts
    > TOSTITOS RSTC 12OZ
    > $3.50
    >
    > +3 pts
    > Other items*
    > EXCLUDED ITEMS
    > $0.07
    >
    > *May include rewards-ineligible items and/or prescriptions.

Ostensibly (hopefully) it would exclude sensitive items, plan B, condoms, etc...

I'm curious how this data flows from Walgreens to my rent company, but maybe I'd rather not know and just use cash/certified check from now on.

replies(19): >>42910141 #>>42910150 #>>42910255 #>>42910258 #>>42910275 #>>42910307 #>>42910604 #>>42911346 #>>42911365 #>>42911455 #>>42911597 #>>42911711 #>>42911897 #>>42911933 #>>42913328 #>>42914952 #>>42915737 #>>42922787 #>>42928562 #
inetknght ◴[] No.42910255[source]

> just use cash/certified check from now on

You might want to discover about sophistication and pervasive facial recognition technology used by major retailers. Paid by cash? It can still be tracked to you. For "fraud prevention", of course.

replies(4): >>42910384 #>>42910425 #>>42911052 #>>42927053 #
1. londons_explore ◴[] No.42910425[source]

Are you aware of cases where it is used for more that theft prevention/manual review of CCTV?

I'm not aware of any big retailers using facial data for targeting vouchers or anything similar.

Simple things like "did walk through the door with a child" would be pretty valuable data, yet as far as I know, nobody uses it.