Omnichannel Stitching

So much for iPhone privacy. I had thought that paying in a physical store with contactless Apple Pay was more or less protecting my privacy. It turns out this is not the case.

I mean of course paying by credit card you give your static credit card number to the merchant. But that should be it, right? Just the number. Not your email, home address, phone number and God knows what else.

So I was quite stunned in Queenstown, New Zealand, after landing I went to a sports shop to buy some freeze dried food and a gas canister. When paying I rarely pay attention to the details other than the transaction amount but I thought there was a glimpse of my phone number and my email on the terminal for a short while. This was confirmed later this day when I received a bunch of emails from the store - welcome, coupons etc. Had I provided them with this data voluntarily? Nope. I even went through my email history and there was no trace of any earlier communication from that store chain.

So they must have automatically enrolled me into their loyalty program. But how did they get my email and phone?

Consulting Gemini I learned about the Shopify / Omnichannel "Stitching". 

Some retailers (and that was the case here) use Shopify POS. These systems are incredibly good at "identity stitching.". If you have ever used your email address with that specific credit card anywhere in the Shopify ecosystem (even on a different store's website), the system can sometimes recognize the underlying card hash. Once you provide your email once, the system creates a "Customer Graph" that links every token you ever use (old phone, new phone, physical card) to that one email address.

How creepy!

I guess this would be illegal in Europe? And even elsewhere you would expect asking for consent to opt-in. I of course immediately unsubscribed from that store's communication and definitely this whole experience was negative such that in future I would select a different store. But of course have to admit that down the road all of them will be using this or a similar system.

Also, this scheme will continue to spread. United Airlines have been installing Starlink, offering the blazingly fast in-flight WiFi for free. Per Financial Times - they have been working on their own multimedia platform, with the following rationale: An airline that knows the frequent flyer in seat 23A never checks baggage might partner with, say, Uber, to offer reservations at their destination, or proffer onboard grocery shopping to the family heading to a holiday rental.

I rarely use in-flight WiFi. So may be able to survive in peace. At the same time, I don't think any store has had any positive conversion from trying to track me on enrolling me on a loyalty program. But most likely I'm not a model customer.