Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

-DementedAvenger- t1_j1a3wdy wrote

Reply to comment by Madhavaz in TIL that DMVs in the US are allowed to sell some of your personal information and do. This practice is legal under federal law. For example, Florida’s DMV made $77 million and California’s DMV made $52 million in 2017 through this practice alone. by TheKeyboardKid

> Don't even get me started on those "Loyalty Rewards" cards from the grocery store and Target

That's why I just pool my purchases into [area code]-867-5309. Famous number that others can use too. It's all for the betterment of others, AND the companies get fed gibberish info from everyone.

And discounts on gas!

86

tigernamednoel t1_j1bpg05 wrote

Unless you pay with cash for absolutely everything and are never caught on CCTV buying anything it doesn’t matter. I work on software that connects all those little dots.

37

Cyber_Fetus t1_j1bqv1t wrote

I only barter in livestock and precious metals, have fun with that edge case

50

tigernamednoel t1_j1c8aj9 wrote

Dammit! Can’t let my boss see this or I’ll be responsible for creating this hellhole of a user story.

11

alwaysaloneguy t1_j1bto65 wrote

John Oliver did a segment on Data Brokers a few months back that I found both horrifying and fascinating. The sophistication of the software needed to go through all of that data and connect those dots

23

tigernamednoel t1_j1c869b wrote

It’s super interesting and as you said complex. Bit scared of it when I started at my company and now just resigned to the fact that it’s happening. From a technical side though it’s a very very interesting thing to work on, and how one company does it is very different from others. Some techniques are optimized for speed and real time queries while others are definitely more in depth and are built to provide extremely comprehensive data points.

10

KmartQuality t1_j1emfan wrote

Every Walmart sends many gigabytes of purchasing data back to HQ every day.

1

AnthillOmbudsman t1_j1abil6 wrote

It'a kind of hilarious seeing the youngsters having no idea what that number is. I mean for christ sake I wasn't around in the 1960s but I've heard a fuckton of songs from that era, and Jenny was a #4 hit in 1981.

17

femmestem t1_j1au6l6 wrote

sigh I'm going to be singing that song to myself for the rest of the day now. Not sure whether you deserve an upvote or downvote for that.

9

RVelts t1_j1dw10j wrote

In the 512 area code at Randall’s grocery store that number comes up as belonging to Rasputin. You can use it as gas stations and it often has 10-30 cents off in rewards per gallon.

2

KmartQuality t1_j1em8a3 wrote

I used to use 510-the-scam (510-843-7226). 510 because it was the HQ area code for Safeway, and I had friends that worked for corporate.

Because so many people used it you would get all sorts of extra discounts. You never knew if you'd get a free sandwich at the deli. It was fun. Eventually they shut that number down.

1