Are there any privacy friendly food delivery apps that don’t siphon off all your data?
I’m curious what the data collection/selling is like for customers vs drivers?
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I think there’s not much you can do with an app like that, they need your address, payment info, etc in order to function, on top of seeing all your orders. Until there’s some breakthrough that would let them not have to collect that data somehow I’d say they’re all about the same.
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Is there any specific geography you are asking about?
North America mainly, however, I am curious if there are others that are privacy respecting variants in the rest of the world.
many restuarants will still do traditional delivery if you call them directly (this part is important, those delivery services have been known to set up fake sites/numbers to scalp off the top)
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traditional delivery if you call them directly
This is a good point.
Are restaurants known to use any special software for managing phone/website orders that collects the customer’s data and sells it for their own gain (excluding mainstream delivery apps)?
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I have not studied law so be sure to think critically about what I say next, as it is only speculation: I would think that it is more difficult to collect and sell as personal of data via normal phonecalls compared to smartphone apps. The behavioral surplus gathered from phonecalls is probably significantly lower than that gathered from smartphone apps. Why? There’s probably much stronger legal precedents that protects the privacy of phonecalls, since phonecalls are protected by the fourth amendment. So,
would probably be more riskier and thus less likely.
However, companies can also record lines. But I would think they’d have to have that classic automated, prerecorded message “This phonecall is being monitored for our purposes” or whatever. Monitored/recorded phonecalls might be processed by AI within the customer service/support industry to sort which lines go to which helper, but I don’t think this would be all that prevalent in the restaurant industry.
For any proprietary app use the web app instead to limit some of the data collection.
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honestly food delivery apps with some exception provide cash upon delivery so if im not mistaken you could give no credit card detail and keep paying with cash
some exception because I noticed there would be stores that the food delivery apps lock away from cash payments which is just stupid and at this point I agree with ordering directly from the store as @AstraKitten mentioned in that case.
Some stores do also insist on using their own delivery staff and not the delivery app’s ones which while it doesn’t help that they food delivery app still collects the order, it is just a nice to have bonus on top of cash.
One option to preserve some degree of anonymity/privacy is to provide a fake name, a nearby address that isn’t yours for pickup (ideally an apartment building), and pay with cash on delivery or with prepaid debit card.
Sometimes you have to make sacrifices for your privacy. So I would say just don’t use those. Or at the very least think very hard why you use them. Can’t you walk a bit to get the food yourself?
Might not be the most popular answer, but it’s important to think about whether you really need X before thinking about how to do X in most privacy-friendly way.
I’ll agree with calling the restaurant directly. A fair number are disillusioned with food delivery apps (so I hear) and might have someone that does deliveries available. Look on their website for the menu - this is how everyone did it for decades up until a few years ago, so it’s not exactly rocket science or a huge burden to just write down what you want and call someone to tell them.
For someone that’s going to bring you something, talking to a human on the phone and paying cash is about as good as it gets. Tell them your is Bob, they don’t care as long as some human with cash is there and they have a number to call in case something happens. You get mail, so unless you’re running a safehouse for the Witness Protection Program, you’re not exactly exposing much data.