Recently went through working on reducing data exposure but I’m wondering if I should keep some of my old contact information with companies, since it is no longer valid. Please let me explain.
Example:
-Changed phone number
Existing company (Local Grocery store), still uses my old phone number for Loyalty points/discount coupons when you buy food.
Dilemma:
I hate to give them the new number because it will surely leak back to data brokers.
Should I let that company keep my old number which will age and is currently not my number?
I’m just not smart enough to know the risks of leaving the old, invalid number associated with an online account…
The whole point of the rewards program is for the company to track your purchases and also harvest contact info for marketing purposes so I wouldn’t give them the new number.
That is my first instinct as well, just leave the old number and allow it to “age-out” and become a useless dataset. My concern is that it would still link to me, since it did once? (I have no idea if leaving the old number out there in an active account exposes me somehow)
It would probably still link to you, but remember, unless you’re using cash they can still link it to you. I’ve gotten emails from Walmart with my receipt just based off of a card they had on file to an account linked to that email. There are so many layers to how data harvesting works in public places like stores. Some of them have bluetooth beacons following devices around the store. I know some jewelry stores near me have facial recognition software running, and some places have gait recognition.
If you’re just worried about the phone number though, I’d leave it and keep using it. They already have your shopping habits associated with that number so by continuing to use it you’re just maintaining a pattern for anyone watching to see so that other things you buy aren’t observed in the pattern.
Yeah any purchases you don’t want linked to you should be done without the rewards program with cash. Unfortunately the whole point is tracking your purchases so it’s not possible to use it without them linking your purchases back to you.
One interesting thing to note about rewards programs:
If you make a purchase with a credit card using a rewards card, then do another transaction with the same credit card without using the rewards card, some stores can still associate the card with your membership.