From what was listed in the article it seemed like it was all data generated by the chain. If it included a lot of stuff from outside sources I would probably be put off, but this seems fairly benign.
I suppose they could be sharing that information with third parties and that could be bad.
Yeah I agree, from what was in the article it looked like stuff anyone would want to know about their customers. How often they visit, top items ordered, and average spending per order.
It could even be helpful, if they know what you usually order they could present that as a "one-click" option rather than you having to navigate their incredibly tedious standard kiosk UI to order what you want.
Agree. I think everyone is just in a bad mood about so-called “privacy” such that any “data” that is “about” you sounds automatically creepy. A shoe store that filed a duplicate of every receipt in a file cabinet is storing the same amount of “yOuR dAtA” as this - and if they hired a kid to go through the year’s receipts and make a list of top customers with their number of visits per year and $ spend, that’s exactly the same level of scary as what’s happening here.
If you interact with others, they might keep a detailed record of how you did so. And to some degree that’s their right. And obviously computers keep records basically by default.
It’s nefarious by definition, because the actual full statement is
> they’re tracking us to increase their profits, everything else be damned. Including your interests, your rights, the law, morality, and long term side effects.
I'm sure they already are. Can you imagine how much health insurance companies would luv to get their hands on such data? How much they would be willing to pay?
Main problem with that is that 90% of us are on group plans and the insurance company doesn’t get to know who’s in the group when they price the premiums for your employer, and on the (Obamacare) individual plans they can only use broad things like age, etc.
If that changes, there’s still the problem that they would have to disclose it, and when people notice, they’d be sure to avoid the restaurant where eating there increases your insurance premiums!
maybe they start by not adjusting your rates based on your habits, but just nagging you.
Aetna already notices when I don't pick up my prescriptions on time and emails me about it. So I could imagine a dystopian future where the insurance company makes you install an app instead of using an insurance card (or at least makes this the default/easier), and the app sends you a push notification when it senses you're too close to a McDonald's and says "Do you really need that double cheeseburger? It's your third one this week! (and Apple Health says your heart rate ain't looking so great)"
I know there are a zillion reasons this couldn't happen exactly like that now, (e.g., you'd have to give permission for all of this) but how far off is it?
That's not really all that nefarious is it?
From what was listed in the article it seemed like it was all data generated by the chain. If it included a lot of stuff from outside sources I would probably be put off, but this seems fairly benign.
I suppose they could be sharing that information with third parties and that could be bad.