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Comment by ppeetteerr | Hacker News Reader

I "love" how the reward are gift cards, not actual money. How much more insulting can they be: your privacy is not even worth liquid currency. Some people probably need the gift cards, but it's as upsetting as people selling blood for gift cards.

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Giftcards can be tracked. Money can’t :)

Isn't this some tax thing? If they pay you money, they have to file a 1099 with the IRS. If they give you a gift card, it's up to you to record it as a gift on your taxes.

You might be correct, good person. I'm curious if this is standard in the industry...

well think of the other possibly bigger perk: they get your business and loyalty again in the future at a discount since the card was given as an enticing amount (e.g. "$50" but after markup is only really $28 to the business).

It's the same when I've taken consumer surveys at conferences, taste tests in the mall, etc.

Also, some percent of users will forget to use the gift card, or be unaware of how to check the available balance, or use it down to the last penny.

Presumably, this allows for sending money to children who are unlikely to have a bank account.

Prepaid debit cards are totally a thing though.

Don't know why you're downvoted - sending prepaid debit cards has taken the place of cutting a check in a lot of instances. When I cancelled DirecTV years ago, they sent my refund as one.

...or just maybe, some people have different value judgements than you do. Those people also probably think statements like yours are paternalistic and condescending.

Great, just show me where FB got an ethics board approval on both the consent forms and nature of data gathered on underage youth and then maybe I'll believe that people were properly told of the risks involved .

Would you like to elaborate on this with some facts or will you just throw shade with a hypothetical statement?

Is the idea that people have different values or even morals a wild idea? Else how could 2 people see abortion as either self-determination for women vs actual infanticide?

Some people have different points of view, for sure! I am objecting to the argument that:

some people have different value judgements than you do -> those people also probably think statements like yours are paternalistic and condescending.

Are they physical gift cards, or e-gift card codes. If the later, one obvious advantage over other payment methods is that they can be delivered by email or by a web page.

I think most people would prefer that to receiving a check in the mail, or cash in the mail, or supplying banking details for a direct deposit.

They seem to have cards available for multiple merchants. If they have a decent selection there should be something available from a merchant a given subject actually buys things from. If so, a gift card is pretty much as good as cash.

Gift card code distribution is also much easier to automate and track. I'm in a small research lab and we recently moved from cash to gift cards. It's much easier to distribute both physically and digitally.

giftcards talk, money walks.

i wonder why they didn't insist on paying people via Google Wallet

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