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Everyone knows your location: tracking myself down through in-app ads

(timsh.org)
1957 points apokryptein | 2 comments | 02 Feb 25 17:07 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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inahga ◴[02 Feb 25 17:31 UTC] 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.

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1. jrockway ◴[02 Feb 25 18:32 UTC] No.42910604[source]▶
What's most interesting to me about that is that they are willing to disclose that data to your email provider. Amazon, for example, is pretty cagey about what you've bought when sending emails, probably because they don't want Google to be able to use that information to target ads to you. (Not because they are Good and care about your privacy, but because they think they're going to beat Google at advertising. How's that going?)

So yeah, I don't get why they would do this. It gives their advertising competitors valuable data for free, and it pisses off customers by telling them that they're being tracked when they shop at Walgreens. Strange stuff.

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2. myself248 ◴[03 Feb 25 04:20 UTC] No.42914937[source]▶
Oh, here I thought it was because every time I want to remember info about an order, it forces me back to their platform, rather than simply searching my email like I do for every other item I've ever purchased.

(And no, I don't use gmail.)