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Comment by russdill | Hacker News Reader

"My supermarket has a savings scheme, in exchange for my personal information. The way it works is that the cashier asks: do you want to join this savings scheme? If the customer says yes, they give you a form to fill in your details. If you say no, they leave you alone, and you miss out on the discount or gifts."

Hahahaha, yes, if you don't join their club, they don't collect personal information.

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Or you just provide someone else’s information. Who says you have to share your true name with your supermarket? Unfortunately it’s very difficult to lie to google

If the company uses phone numbers to lookup accounts, (Local-Area-Code)-8675-309 almost always works.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/867-5309/Jenny

This feels a bit like giving your name as "Prawo Jazdy":

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/7899171....

There was a turning point in 2010 when people stopped recognizing this number at checkout (new generation i guess). I still chuckle when I give the number and they diligently enter it.

The staff at the paint store got rather confused and couldn't really figure out what to do with me, or how to take my money, when I refused to join their club, saying that I'd rather pay the 20% extra. We only managed to proceed when my wife filled in the form.

Turns out you could just lie and fill out anything on the form.

One strategy I heard about is to get a local group of like-minded individuals together, throw all of your loyalty cards in a communal pile then take one back randomly. That mixes the signal up for any kind of targeted tracking while also getting you the discounts. Or you can just say "I forgot my card" and use the store copy that is usually at the register (at least for groceries).

What a great idea :)

Don't worry, depending on the state, they have plenty of other ways to personally identify you. No need.

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