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Comment by blakesterz | Hacker News Reader

  "When I spoke with Cranor, she was floored by just how often I went to McDonald’s: “This guy eats a lot of McDonald's.” My boss, who was also stunned by my processed-food choices, says I now have to stop eating there. Despite my love of crispy Diet Cokes and greasy french fries, I agree."

I wonder how many of us would stop going not just to McDonald’s, but all the other places if we knew just how much they ALL have in our files. They're not tracking us to be helpful, they're tracking us to increase their profits.

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> they're tracking us to increase their profits

That's not really all that nefarious is it?

From what was listed in the article it seemed like it was all data generated by the chain. If it included a lot of stuff from outside sources I would probably be put off, but this seems fairly benign.

I suppose they could be sharing that information with third parties and that could be bad.

It's creepy

Yeah I agree, from what was in the article it looked like stuff anyone would want to know about their customers. How often they visit, top items ordered, and average spending per order.

It could even be helpful, if they know what you usually order they could present that as a "one-click" option rather than you having to navigate their incredibly tedious standard kiosk UI to order what you want.

Agree. I think everyone is just in a bad mood about so-called “privacy” such that any “data” that is “about” you sounds automatically creepy. A shoe store that filed a duplicate of every receipt in a file cabinet is storing the same amount of “yOuR dAtA” as this - and if they hired a kid to go through the year’s receipts and make a list of top customers with their number of visits per year and $ spend, that’s exactly the same level of scary as what’s happening here.

If you interact with others, they might keep a detailed record of how you did so. And to some degree that’s their right. And obviously computers keep records basically by default.

it'll become nefarious when they start selling it to health insurance companies.

When?

I'm sure they already are. Can you imagine how much health insurance companies would luv to get their hands on such data? How much they would be willing to pay?

Main problem with that is that 90% of us are on group plans and the insurance company doesn’t get to know who’s in the group when they price the premiums for your employer, and on the (Obamacare) individual plans they can only use broad things like age, etc.

If that changes, there’s still the problem that they would have to disclose it, and when people notice, they’d be sure to avoid the restaurant where eating there increases your insurance premiums!

maybe they start by not adjusting your rates based on your habits, but just nagging you.

Aetna already notices when I don't pick up my prescriptions on time and emails me about it. So I could imagine a dystopian future where the insurance company makes you install an app instead of using an insurance card (or at least makes this the default/easier), and the app sends you a push notification when it senses you're too close to a McDonald's and says "Do you really need that double cheeseburger? It's your third one this week! (and Apple Health says your heart rate ain't looking so great)"

I know there are a zillion reasons this couldn't happen exactly like that now, (e.g., you'd have to give permission for all of this) but how far off is it?

Happier, fitter, more productive...

You're right as far as health insurance is concerned. Life insurance is different. It is often contracted on an individual basis.

It’s nefarious by definition, because the actual full statement is

> they’re tracking us to increase their profits, everything else be damned. Including your interests, your rights, the law, morality, and long term side effects.

The last bit is unspoken but ALWAYS there.

At my first start up, I unfortunately relied on fast food daily. One night I pulled into a Wendy’s and the drive thru operator opened with “Hey Mike. Working late again, eh? The usual [my usual order]”. I don't recall having a friendly relationship with the operator or really talking to any one in particular, so this freaked me out and also made me feel a bit of shame. I stopped going after that. Granted, this was just a friendly worker but your question reminded me of it.

Definitely prompted me to remove the Taco Bell app. I don’t need the occasional free bean burrito that badly.

One of the people working at the coffee place my wife and I stop at after grocery shopping remembered my name and order and I thought it was pretty nice to be greeted by name. They aren't there anymore and I miss it.

It does sound nice for a local shop. And I don’t discredit the worker for being nice in my case. I was however disturbed by the fact I was shamefully slamming that much fast food at 1 AM every day.

User name checks out!

I used to eat McD’s once a week as my chest meal. Fries, coke, the lot. I loved it.

Then my Mum got cancer, and my brother just said “why would you put that shit in your body?”

That was seven years ago and I’ve never had fast food or sofa since. I can’t imagine how sick it would make me feel.

i think they mean "crispy" fries, and "greasy" drinks?

Crisp (and refreshing) is a perfectly fine way to describe a drink. “Crispy” doesn’t quite read the same but I can see a way it becomes the shortened usage of whole phrase.

a crisp drink, sure; in a similar vein to carrot juice though, calling a carrot 'juicy' is cromulent.... but....

They increase profits, so what? The real reason I don't go there is I don't want to deal with an app to buy food at the non-sucker price.

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