Invasion of the Number Snatchers

Paying for merchandise in a retail store is getting to be a mighty unpleasant chore.

Today I went to Borders and picked up a couple books. The very first thing the lady asks me at the cash register is,

“What’s your email?”

Not, “Thank you for shopping with us today.” Not, “Did you find everything you needed?”

“What’s your email?”

Now I don’t know about you, but the last thing I need is more people with my email address. So I say, “I can’t give you that.”

Thankfully, she doesn’t push it. Am I home free? No. She shifts gears and starts asking me if I have a Borders reward card. I don’t. It’s free, she says. It’ll give you this, that, and the other benefit, she says. I relent. OK, I’ll take a look. And then -

“What’s your phone number?”

Sheesh. All I want is a couple books. I say, “Sorry, I can’t give you that.”

She says, “Are you sure?”

Boy, I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life. The more she asks, the less I want to be in the store, period.

Does this kind of check out experience make your skin crawl? I used to avoid these situations like the plague until …

Just Say No!

Before meeting up with TJ McDonald and working on his PrivacyBuilders startup, I could never have handled “counter interrogation” so confidently*.

When checkout people asked for my phone number, I never knew what to say. I was flummoxed. Sometimes I’d lie and say I had an unlisted number. Other times (for shame!) I’d give them a fake phone number, like Elaine in Seinfeld. Occasionally I’d say something really stupid, like our phone was out of service. But most of the time, I’d spinelessly cave and give them my data.

But now, armed with some knowledge of the information game, I just say no. Now it’s the clerks who are flummoxed and fumbling. One of these days I’m going to respond to the “What’s your number?” question with one of my own -

“What’s your company’s privacy policy?”

What kind of answers do you think they’ll have?
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*One might say TJ taught me “counter intelligence”.