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Comment by MiddleEndian | Hacker News Reader

Doesn't surprise me at all. I've seen suspicious Facebook newsfeed items based on things I've purchased from them.

Meanwhile, when I had Home Depot manage a kitchen counter installation for me, they called me on the phone and left me a voicemail telling me to call their installer people and tell them my email address. Some serious incompetence for a department that already knew my name when I gave them my number, and a company that has no problem sending me multiple emails after I buy a pack of screws.

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I've just started refusing to tell retail workers my email address at checkout.

I'm buying a product from your store, I might not ever set foot in here again. I certainly don't need your company to contact me for any reason, I don't need you building a profile on me, I don't need you telling ad networks who I am and what I bought.

Every now and then I get a pushy retail worker trying to convince me that I should just give my number or email or whatever and I usually make a note not to shop there anymore.

Every now and then I get a pushy retail worker trying to convince me that I should just give my number or email or whatever and I usually make a note not to shop there anymore.

I tell them that I just moved and haven't set up my e-mail yet. That sees plausible enough to get me out of most situations.

For the phone number, I have the number of a payphone at the county jail memorized. It doesn't take incoming calls.

The reason the minimum-wage worker is hassling you so hard is because at some stores, if you don't collect enough customer contact data, you can get fired. I had a relative who worked at Macy's once, and this was a regular threat.

> The reason the minimum-wage worker is hassling you so hard is because at some stores, if you don't collect enough customer contact data, you can get fired

Yea, I know. And I do have empathy for their position. I've worked retail and I used to get in trouble if I let a customer buy a laptop without pushing extended warranties on them. So I get it.

I guess I just hope they don't hold it against me for not giving them my personal info just like I never held it against customers who didn't buy extended warranties

I don't tell any new people my email, but Home Depot already has mine for whatever reason. So be it.

But since I needed to sync up with the installers and they already had the email, why not share it internally? Perhaps it was stored in some PII category that could only be used to advertise at customers but help them.

“Hey Siri, remind me to not walk into this store when I’m near it” (as the salesrep continues with the pressure tactics)

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