Thursday, June 21, 2018

Enough! I'm Not Sharing My Email Address

It doesn't matter that every other company in the world, from Microsoft to the neighborhood ice cream shop, already has my email address. I'm not giving it to PetSmart.

Way back in the 1970s I went to Radio Shack for an adapter to hook my tape recorder up to my LP stereo so I could play cassettes through the big speakers. I was very high tech back then, and Radio Shack was the place to go for odd little things that nobody else had, such as adapters to hook things up to other things.

Radio Shack was the first place I remember that always asked for your phone number whenever you bought something.  At first it seemed odd, then it became annoying. All I wanted was an adapter. Why did they need my phone number? Even then, I suspected some sort of vast conspiracy though I wasn't sure what it was.

In fact, it was the beginning of the data megastorm that now characterizes the 21st century.

What started as Radio Shack attempting to keep track of individual customer spending is now every company keeping track of everything you do, buy, look up online, and watch on TV.

Our world now runs on data - bits of information you can't even see that fill warehouses full of computers all over the world.

It's so pervasive we don't even think about it. Every rewards program is just a way to keep track of your spending habits so they can figure out how to sell you more. Every click of your mouse is tracked. Every web site you visit is tallied. Department stores know from tracking your cell phone when you walk through their doors. They even know what section you're shopping in. Based on your age, zip code, marital status, and lots of data that doesn't even seem relevant, they can estimate the probability of your buying a particular item. Have you seen the little TVs in some store aisles? They might be programmed to advertise a particular product to you, personally.

And companies don't just collect and use data. They sell it to each other. That's why when minutes after I look up prices for tickets to Hong Kong on the United Airlines web site, I see ads for Hong Kong hotels on Facebook.

The main thing that George Orwell, author of the book, 1984, got wrong is this: it's not the government that tracks your every move with the intention of controlling everything you do, it's big business. Corporations monitor everything you do with the intention of controlling everything you buy. 

I'm sometimes disappointed when the data gods don't work better than they do. Last year after we purchased a brand new TIVO system online, TIVO started sending me advertisements for TIVO systems. Wasn't it smart enough to figure out I'd just bought one? Why would I buy another one so soon? TIVO should wait a year and then push out the new ads.

But then the data harvest gets annoying. It's not enough that businesses passively collect our personal information and then swap and sell it to each other. Sometimes, they mandate it, as if they have a right to it.

PetSmart demands my email address every time I make a purchase. They already have my phone number. I use my credit card every time I shop there. What more do they need? But when I buy cat food, the check out clerk doesn't politely ask for my email address, she commands me to give it to her. The system actually won't process my purchase until she enters an email address.

I don't think it's the clerk's fault. She's just taking orders from above. Yet she must suffer my ire when I continue to refuse to give my email to her. I imagine "Corporate" thinks I'll just give in and surrender it, but at this point I'm feeling stubborn. I'll be damned if I'm going to be pressured into giving up any more personal information. It doesn't matter that every other company in the world, from Microsoft to the neighborhood ice cream shop, already has my email address. I'm not giving it to PetSmart.

To complete the transaction, both of us near tears and all of the people behind me in line getting agitated, the PetSmart clerk finally types in a fake email address (noname@noname.com) so the transaction will complete and I can take my cat food home.

I've shopped at PetSmart for years. I am a loyal customer. I appreciate their partnership with shelters to promote adoption of homeless animals. But this is ridiculous. I wonder if PetCo requires an email address when you make a purchase.

Your data is out there no matter what. To fight it is exhausting and probably futile. In addition to the physical "you" there's a data "you" and there's not a thing either of you can do about it.