Restaurant emailed me a receipt. How did they get my email?

I'm traveling, hundreds of miles away from home, visiting family. On their wifi I googled Thai Food nearby. Saw several place and picked one. Go there, eat, pay with debit card. Get back to their house and turn on my iPad. There's an email from the restaurant with a copy of the receipt. How could they have possibly gotten my email address? I didn't click on their website, didn't open or use my email in any way during the process. Wanted to post this in the WTF thread but it's only pictures. It is a WTF though.

 

They probably use the same payment processor as some other business you’ve been to that already has your card and email stored - square, clover, etc

 

From the details of the transaction? I can't recall exactly what data is returned and maybe it has changed, but some data is presented to the merchant as measures to prevent fraud are likely abused to repurpose into marketing.

Are you on any social networks like Flakebook or Instasham that "respect your privacy?" Gravitar data? Who knows, the only privacy you'll get nowadays is to pay only with cash and get entirely off the grid. I tried it one week, you'd be surprised at how many things you can't do (or are at least difficult) without using electronic transactions.

 

I pulled in to a Cabelas parking lot to reply to work text. Got home that night to an email asking if my visit to Cabelas went well, had adds in my in box for the next week until I labeled them spam. One of the guys I work with said let me see your phone. Looked at my apps, said they share info with your home depot app. I started researching, appears they and several other companies sell access to the their apps.

Only way to dodge is it appears to be turn your phone off and use it only for calls, or buy a burner phone. LOL We are pretty much fucked!

My guess is it's all that the above posters said and then some.

 

^Why do you need the Home Depot app?

 

Their watching us…

 

Remodeling a 125 year old house. I had it for finding the items in the store. I keep it turned off now.

The kid working for us told me that most retail apps sold access back and forth. Digging in, he was right. Any app you have opens the door.

The exchange at work was, one of the guys said I dont have anything to hide! Will said, let me have your checking account number, the answer was no, so Will said can I have your drivers license number, answer was why? He said, you got nothing to hide, how bout social security number. LOL

 

Duck Duck Go will help you greatly reduce this nonsense.

Turning off location in Google will as well. Although location can be useful for some things.

 

No need to turn off the phone... all you to do is close any running apps in background.

That's the reason the apps are tracking you if you left them running in background.

 

Turn off location services.

I keep my GPS off unless I am actively using it.
Of course if I needed 'find my phone' this would complicate things but so far/so good.


I work at a shop and when someone uses their card, it pops up on our screen how many times they have visited this month, along with a spending summary. I find it creepy.
Makes me wanna pay with cash even more often than I do.

 

I was being a smart ass, though it's a dream of mine to turn the fucking phone off. For work I usually get between 40 and 60 phone calls a day, 60 to 100 emails on a busy day. I have given notice that the end of December is my last day on the job, so hoping retirement means turning the damn thing off. Honestly, I have been tethered to an electronic cowbell since the late 80's, I can live with not having it.

 

Or you can just not grant location access to every app. Most of mine are set to only allow when app is running if enabled at all.

 

I honestly never even thought about it.

 

I understand that you get lot of calls and email... that's the business life. That's what it is. I understand it can be annoying.

I can live without any phones as well..

Good luck with your retirement!

 

I suspect I will be bagging groceries. LOL My boss said what are you gonna do when you retire? I said dont know, but it's not gonna have anything to do with welding.