RadioShack Customer Data Up For Sale In Auction

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How can RadioShack even do something like this? I guess they don't have a reputation left to worry about, but still. :(

RadioShack is trying to auction off its customer data on some 117 million customers as part of its court-supervised bankruptcy. The data in question, according to a legal challenge (PDF) launched by Texas regulators on Friday and joined by the state of Tennessee on Monday, includes "consumer names, phone numbers, mailing addresses, e-mail addresses, and, where allowed, activity data."
 
Wait until Google goes up for sale one day. Everything that goes up must come down. Microsoft would make a killing selling off MySpace data. Facebook? Hell if AOL sold off their user browsing data from the dial up days how much would knowing everything that a potential customer has clicked or searched for in the past 20 years worth?

We don't need hackers to exploit the lemmings. All we need to do is wait for unregulated capitalistic greed to kick in.
 
With stores nowadays, unless you are part of a shopper rewards program, every time they ask for your name/number/email, just decline or give fake ones, because one day they will do the same thing RS is doing right now
 
Everybody does it. I would imagine Google, Apple, Microsoft, Harmony.com, Match.com, Amazon, etc. all have their data segmented to be sold to specific markets. Information is the new "gold".
 
The other day at Sears I gave my phone number as 867-5309. Turns out I had custom credit of $1.90 that I could use on my purchase.
 
Even the companies that claim they wont sell your data, do. There is always a clause that says "while *we* wont sell your data, the 3rd party companies we are already in bed with that you hereby agree to sign up to can." So basically the terms cancel each other out and your data is instantly available for sale. Never ever ever ever EVER give real info to some cashier or survey that asks you to, unless you are actually directly receiving something back and know for a fact it's legit.
 
I practically got into an argument with a cashier and embarrassed my g/f once at a fricken Bath & Body Works over this trying to buy some damn hand soap. They kept insisting for my info before checking me out, "but sir... but sir" I felt like those guys in the anti-border patrol videos belligerently denying to answer their questions.
 
I used to work at radio shack.. way back when they started asking for customer data.. even on small cash sales

boy.. was that fun.. not

one day.. i had telly savalas walk into the store.. knew who he was.. but I still HAD to ask him

man.... did that suck
 
I used to hate when RS did that (ask your name, address, etc.) so I would just refuse.

You can either sell me the product, or not. I don't just run around telling people my name, address, etc. and I certainly don't do it when buying something from a store.

I think my new response is: If you want the information, I charge a flat $75.00 fee for it. Would you still like to purchase my information? :)
 
Never trust a mega-corp, even one that is going down in flames.
 
Wait until Google goes up for sale one day. Everything that goes up must come down. Microsoft would make a killing selling off MySpace data. Facebook? Hell if AOL sold off their user browsing data from the dial up days how much would knowing everything that a potential customer has clicked or searched for in the past 20 years worth?

We don't need hackers to exploit the lemmings. All we need to do is wait for unregulated capitalistic greed to kick in.

What? Google isnt going anywhere, microsoft dont even own myspace. This will get shot down pretty quick.

Put the tinfoil hat back away. We dont need companies to sell our info when people are putting it out there for free.
 
Great... They used to beg, harass and get your information any way they could back in the day. Buy a 49 cent part? It's just for our purposes... BS.

Radio Shack continues to get more shittier after they failed....
 
Hahaha - I wonder how many people get that reference.:D

No one does. It's definitely not a super popular song with the most memorable phone number of all time... Unless you're under the age of 12, you know the reference.
 
just decline or give fake ones
That's what I do, and I have a special SPAM yahoo account that is used just for receipts. That way if they send me SPAM I don't care, and if I ever need an electronic receipt I can still manually search for it and find it.

Unfortunately, if they give them credit card info which has your name and billing address, then you are SOL as I pay for everything with credit.
 
Never trust a mega-corp, even one that is going down in flames.

You mean, especially one that is going down in flames, right?

Welcome to the world of big business. I work for a small one, and so many of our clients expect us to act like the big guys, and get weirded out when we don't, like we're the wrong ones...sad.
 
It's an asset of the business with value. They are liquidating in bankruptcy. The court will MAKE them sell it or make them hand it over to a creditor in lieu of payment of debt.
 
I used to hate when RS did that (ask your name, address, etc.) so I would just refuse.

And the poor employee ended up with a poor rating at his next review because he had too many receipts with no name/address. They didn't care why you didn't get the information, they just wanted it, even if it meant people threw their purchase on the floor and left because they where tired of waiting in line while you wrote down each persons information.

I know because I worked at RS while in college and hated having to ask for the information. :(
At least I worked at a slow store and it was an easier job than fast food.
 
I couldn't even get a lift ticket at NorthStar in Tahoe without them asking for my address, DOB, etc. Pissed me off, I told them to either sell me the ticket or don't, but there is absolutely no reason they need my DOB to just buy a damn lift ticket.

It's everywhere now. Couldn't even checkout buying a camera online without creating a full account, it's so damn annoying.
 
They're going bankrupt. They don't care what anyone thinks. Who wouldn't do the same in their situation.
 
Damnit! My phone number that they always asked way back in the day every time I bought batteries is now going to be compromised!
 
The other day at Sears I gave my phone number as 867-5309. Turns out I had custom credit of $1.90 that I could use on my purchase.

Gold. F*cking gold. Points for you.
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And the poor employee ended up with a poor rating at his next review because he had too many receipts with no name/address. They didn't care why you didn't get the information, they just wanted it, even if it meant people threw their purchase on the floor and left because they where tired of waiting in line while you wrote down each persons information.

I know because I worked at RS while in college and hated having to ask for the information. :(
At least I worked at a slow store and it was an easier job than fast food.

I worked at a franchise RS store in HS rather than a corporate store. We weren't required to get names/addresses on tickets. We basically just used it as our own tool though - if you needed to return something due to a defect or something either you had to keep your receipt if you did a cash sale, or we put your name in the system we could reprint the ticket for you.

Helped a lot with recurring customers wanting similar items each time they came in, or if they came in and said "I bought this X <months/years> ago, do you still have any?" and we could just pull up their purchase history and look. Though I lived in a small town (3k people), so that was pretty common.
 
How can RadioShack even do something like this? I guess they don't have a reputation left to worry about, but still. :(

From what I read yesterday, it's not a certainty that they can do it. They apparently had signs saying they wouldn't sell your data. Furthermore, AT&T is suing to stop it, because Radio Shack has some (all?) of their customer data and they don't want that info falling into the hands of Sprint.
 
Home Depot has a pretty crafty way of doing it. They do not ask you for a phone number or name or anything, but instead when you check out they say do you want a printed receipt or emailed receipt? The email is them tracking you, but framing it as convience and saving the Earf.
 
Home Depot has a pretty crafty way of doing it. They do not ask you for a phone number or name or anything, but instead when you check out they say do you want a printed receipt or emailed receipt? The email is them tracking you, but framing it as convience and saving the Earf.

I always wondered why they think I would opt to type out a freaking email address instead of just picking up the receipt.
 
This kind of shit needs to be illegal... but why would it be, the government loves this stuff because their main goal these days is tracking everything. Sickening the kind of world we live in these days.
 
Laws stopping companies from selling your personal data? In this Congress? That's regulation! Can't have that!
 
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