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hajime

macrumors G3
Original poster
Jul 23, 2007
8,170
1,411
Hi, some companies ask customers to join/like their SNS for discount coupons. What are they trying to do? To get customers' friend list? If they truly want to offer discounts, why don't they send by email?
 
That's a very simple answer. Joining a social account allows them access to incredibly valuable personal information that can then be used to increase sales as well as (potentially) monetize the information itself by providing advertisers incredibly accurate sales potential. Google and Facebook's incredible success is(or should be) a lucrative lesson to many companies: get them in, get their data, make lots of money.
 
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Hi, some companies ask customers to join/like their SNS for discount coupons. What are they trying to do? To get customers' friend list? If they truly want to offer discounts, why don't they send by email?
The more information a person shares with a company, the more money that customer profile is worth. And many companies sell customer profiles.
 
Yes, I know a very aggressive company that tries all sorts of ways to get customer information to the point of disgust. One time I asked them to respect customer privacy.

So just create fake accounts for coupons? What could they get from such fake accounts? My phone number and email used to create the accounts?
 
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Yes, I know a very aggressive company that tries all sorts of ways to get customer information to the point of disgust. One time I asked them to respect customer privacy.

So just create fake accounts for coupons? What could they get from such fake accounts? My phone number and email used to create the accounts?

It's even more than that brother. For example UUID. Once they got that so much more than they need. Fake accounts, VPN, purchases from other sites, and get this....purchases off net. It's all one big UUID party. And if you are using an Android phone there is no way I am aware of to block the UUID.

A lot of people don't make the connection. If they know where you go, what you read, what you type, who you know, what they read-type-go -- they know what you are likely to buy AND what you can be enticed to buy (people like X needed to see 3 ads for Y then 40% buy). That is PHENOMENALLY lucrative information. It's why Google makes 170 billion a year in revenue with about 75% from advertising. TV, print type ads of old are horse and buggy, Google and Facebook and a whole lot other companies are supersonic jets.
 
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So just create fake accounts for coupons?
You should look into iCloud+ when it launches Hide My Email:

For the rest of your questions, I think this article has a good summary of what people here have said and will say:

And...

Serious question for you, not an attack: what has made you concerned about privacy right now? Is this a new concern or something that has bothered you for some time?
 
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You should look into iCloud+ when it launches Hide My Email:

For the rest of your questions, I think this article has a good summary of what people here have said and will say:

And...

Serious question for you, not an attack: what has made you concerned about privacy right now? Is this a new concern or something that has bothered you for some time?

I don't "like" or "connect" to any company but a company told me that if I want discounts, I need to connect/like them.
 
Agreed, you could say no to the discounts. What is more important to you: a discount or your privacy?
I find that consumers generally just don’t care or they are too ignorant (And/or all the above). I’m thinking it’s probably more like they just don’t care, and their mentality is, ‘Well, I don’t have that much information out there anyways so, I don’t care if they see XYZ.’ So to the average consumer, they’re ‘saving money’, but long-term, they’re just exposing themself further into untrusted hands.

I don’t have any social media accounts
Like FB or Twitter, nor will I ever. That’s always been a personal choice of mine, and now reflecting back, it’s even made more sense given how consumer identity has been abducted every single day through little tactics like ‘discounts or earning free money’.
 
Unless you're paying everything with cash, companies can track what you buy, when you buy, and how much you buy (it's all on the receipt). With today's computer technology, it's not that difficult to collate all that data and build a consumer profile on user of CC# ending in XXXX.

The big reason they offer these discount programs is to ensure consumer loyalty. They want to keep you from buy from their competitors. They want your approval to bombard you with targetted ads. It also allows them a bigger picture to see how each consumer is related to another. User of CC# ending in XXXX lives next to user of CC# ending YYYY. Send ads of interest to YYYY to XXXX on the off chance their talk with YYYY the product of interest comes up in conversation.

The web of information on you that's already out there is mind boggling. The best you can do is toss out weird data that might muddle their profile of you.

Offer me an big enough discount and I'd join their SNS. 98th Rules of Acquistion: Every man has his price.
 
So I liked their page using a fake account which they know who I am as they requested order ID of my previous order. They are supposed to give me $10 off and also a 25% coupon. However, they only gave me $10. When I questioned them again, they played dumb. I sent them a photo of the paper about that 25% off again. Now they asked me to go to Amazon and click "Helpful" in five different links in exchange for a 25% coupon!!! There is no mention about such condition in the paper that came with the products I previously bought from them.

What do they gain by having more "helpful" ratings on comments in Amazon?
 
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