I guard my information as much as I can. Do you?

[Raissermesser]

Tonight, I was making a cash purchase when the clerk wanted me to enter my phone number on a key pad.
"Why do you need my phone number?" I said.
The clerk gushed that it was for a reward program where you could earn points, and at a certain level you got a discount.
Let's see ... give my phone number to a company and be subject to more sales calls, or earn a piddling discount.
"Not interested," I said.

 

[Rushman2112]

Here, it is compulsory to carry your IC card, if a Singapore citizen or Permanent Resident, or your Employment Pass. It has your photo, name, date of birth, gender, country of birth, nationality, ethnicity, address and identity number. It is second nature to hand it over when you enter an office building, government establishment or even someone else's apartment complex. Shops ask for your IC number, any quasi-official document requires it with your signature, the list goes on.

As a Director of the company that I work for, my name, address, date of birth etc., are publicly available on the Companies House equivalent's website and anyone can buy it for $5.

I buy stuff online all the time so my credit card details are on a dozen systems. I use internet banking here, my UK account and a French account while at work as the Finance Director I authorise payments here, Dubai and HK company accounts.

Occasionally I feel a bit exposed(!)

 

[Bakker1964]

If you want to increase your security and privacy, change your phone number as often as you SHOULD rotate your passwords (every 6 months to a year).

Your phone number is your identifying "bar code" It points to only you. It is linked to ALL your records from medical to financial, and down to social media and purchasing accounts.

.

That would be your SSN in the US, or your SIN in Canada. Both are supposed to be strictly guarded and never given out, but all your stuff is tied to those digits. My work benefits, for example, including my pension plan. Far more unique than a phone number, which people do change reasonably often. I am tech know-nothing, and even I am on my third phone number, and only my second cell phone. I still have accounts tied to my original #, too. Did you know that, so long as you do that, the phone companies cannot reissue it?

 

[shaveitoff]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/mcdonald-s-app-fraudster-online-account-1.5113012

Here is an example of what can happen if you link a form of payment to an app on your phone for "convenience".

 

[Raissermesser]

Maybe it's just being cantankerous, but I may be finding a different place to buy gasoline. As mentioned, where I usually buy wants a phone number for cash purposes, and now they say "Phone number." An elderly woman ahead of me willingly gave it, though she seemed only to have done so because the clerk demanded it. It's one thing for a company to run a "rewards" program tied to your phone number; quite another to simply demand your phone number with the expectation that most will provide it without question.

 

[Vespasian]

In my sixties, when I still bought the occasional pack of cigarettes, I was miffed and a little insulted when the sales clerk asked for my drivers license. I said no. The manager came up, I thought to sort me out, but I said it was just for marketing. My ID would be swiped into the computerized cash register, and all the identification markers therein would be used to flood me with advertising. I thanked him for his honesty, and I never saw him again in the very small store. So no, you can't have my ID card, or my telephone number, or my email address. And I am on no social media whatsoever, including Facebook.

 

[StillShaving]

Maybe it's just being cantankerous, but I may be finding a different place to buy gasoline. As mentioned, where I usually buy wants a phone number for cash purposes, and now they say "Phone number." An elderly woman ahead of me willingly gave it, though she seemed only to have done so because the clerk demanded it. It's one thing for a company to run a "rewards" program tied to your phone number; quite another to simply demand your phone number with the expectation that most will provide it without question.

Maybe you should give them back their number, or the number of the gas station down the street.
I wonder if this is tied to some new software system they are using to track gasoline purchases, for the overall store accounting. I recently got a haircut at a Great Clips or similar chain. It had been over a year since I had used them and I gave them my old phone number which I thought was in their system. To avoid giving them another number I asked them to just skip the phone number business. The barber said that he needed some name/number in order to proceed, at which point I became "Bill", some random guy in their system for tracking purposes. I understand they track customers in order to know their regular haircut style, but I wonder if the real reason is so that the owner has a better accounting of transactions so that the employees can't pocket money as easily.

 

[Mojo88]

When we are on vacation and driving I pay cash for all gas due to the high amount of skimming that goes on. I used to laugh at my wife when she shredded everything with our name on it. That all changed when I watched a guy go through multiple recycling bins. You could tell he was looking for credit card offers or information as he was being very selective. I called the police and they came immediately. As far as social media. I don’t care for Facebook or Linked In. My wife does and it still amazes me the amount of people that post vacation pictures. I minimize the amount of exposure, but we do a fair amount of purchasing on line.

 

[Seraphim]

My phone number?

867-5309

 

[Earcutter]

Big data is reading this thread and saying, “Isn’t that special.”

Big data is clearly a southern woman - “special” lol. But good luck trying to hide anything... especially people who think they can hide their identities from big data on forums like this for example. Big data knows exactly who “Earcutter” is lol! AND if they choose to, they can pull up every thread I’ve posted on, they'll get a pretty good idea of who I am - as in what income bracket I’m in, who I’d likely vote for, sexual preference, health concerns, pro/against 2A or abortion, religious affiliations... etc., etc.

The only reason I sleep well is because it’s still “relatively” expensive for the private sector to do, and ain’t no one caring enough about me to spend that kind of money. As for the feds, yeah, they’ve already got everything.

Short of homeschooling the kids on a riverboat using only cash and staying off the net, I’m obvious to da big data.

Hi NSA!

 

[Seraphim]

NSA- National Shaving Association

 

[Raissermesser]

Maybe you should give them back their number, or the number of the gas station down the street.

I have a plan, a cunning plan, which I'm looking into (and which would probably be as successful as other cunning plans, meaning not very).

 

[shaveitoff]

If someone asked me my phone number to make a purchase, I'd probably say "12" - I got in on the ground floor and that is why it is so low.

Where I live, the government has a near monopoly over liquor sales. They sometimes ask for the first part of my postal code (the system here in Canada is letter-number-letter number-letter-number so a postal code would be like A1B 2C3) From the first half, they know approximately where you live. But in a big city, they can know down to one building in some cases where you live from your postal code.

The thing that bugs me about that is that with a near monopoly, they don't really take in any market data to serve me better. It's a sort of theater to trick the customer that they will serve them better if they can analyse the data and know the store's footprint. Fat chance at a government run store! The government takes in all the tax revenue on the sale of every bottle whether they know the footprint of their stores or not. Even the places where you can buy wine and beer outside of the government stores have to turn over all the tax revenue to the government. They are only in business to grab the tax revenue, not to serve me. A customer getting a bottle of booze from the store is just a byproduct of the tax grab.

So I just tell them that I don't know my postal code.