[dao-]

"It has happened to you, and it has probably happened more than once."

Umm, no. Why on earth would I give my phone number or email address to random shops? This is crazy. I surely don't want merchants to contact me "about other stuff I might want to buy." This assumption sold as a certainty in this article is somewhat disturbing. Do others from the US feel the same way? (I'm from Germany. Different culture?)

[jankassens]

Store memberships for points and rebates on products are really common here in the US. When you sign up for them, they ask for your email, phone number, address, etc.

Safeway, a big supermarket chain, does this to an extreme. Many of their products are "50% off" when you enter your phone number of your membership on checkout. (It really just brings it down to a normal price).

Nothing prevents you from using a fake number, but as far as I can tell, most people give a real number.

It's certainly a different culture in Germany. Media and people are a lot more concerned collection of data.

[qq66]

I use a fake number and a fake name at Safeway, and they always address me by the fake "Mr. XXX" when I check out. Always a little weird.

[berelig]

I can only think of a couple of retailers that have asked me for an email address here in Canada (coincidentally both were US companies).

I do get asked for my postal code fairly often but that's hardly a personal detail.

[anigbrowl]

You postal code, name and the expiration date on your card is enough to positively ID you in many consumer databases, and by giving it to the retailer you're implicitly granting consent for its use for this purpose.

[mgbmtl]

I am not a lawyer, but I'm pretty sure that in Canada, this would be in violation of the federal "Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act", as well as many provincial laws.

https://www.priv.gc.ca/leg_c/leg_c_p_e.asp

"Use or disclose personal information only for the purpose for which it was collected, unless the individual consents, or the use or disclosure is authorized by the Act."

"Keep personal information only as long as necessary to satisfy the purposes."

If the client uses one of those "points" cards, yes, they are tracked, but otherwise they shouldn't. When a retailer asks for your postcode, it is mostly just for market study to identify where their clients live, but that's it (although I rarely get asked). You can also just answer "no thanks" to this question.

[dao-]

Same here regarding the postal code, that's fairly common in Germany.