Lowes privacy invasion

Thanks to one of my children, I found myself at Lowes this evening shopping for a length of copper pipe to fix a leak in my basement. I found what I was looking for easily enough, and proceeded to check out. Normally, I prefer to check out with a human as my cashier, but tonight I had two small items, with UPC codes clearly marked on them, so I decided to be adverturous and use the self-service checkout isle.

For those outside of the US, or for those fortunate not to have to deal with these things, a self-checkout is a computer that you interact with, and run your purchase across a scanner that reads the UPC code on the package. You then must bag the purchase, and either feed cash, check, or a credit card into it. It will then spit out change, and a receipt and wish you a good day.

Should be simple, right? Wrong.

About 50% of the time, you end up with the machine in some sort of crisis, and a real person must come over and clear the error, and take care of the transaction themselves.

Well, tonight I saw a screen on the machine that I never saw before, right before it asked me for my money. "More information is required to complete this transaction. Please input your phone number". Of course there was a nice bug touch screen ready for me to comply with this robot's command, and divulge my home phone number. Well, being a self-respecting member of the society that actually gives a care about it's privacy, I searched and found a small "Decline" button, which brisked me to the "Complete Transaction" screen.

I said to myself, "Surley, nobody in their right mind would just give out their phone number. They must all know that this will lead to telemarketers bothering them during dinner". Well, never underestimate the power of ignorance. The prople that were in line right behind me saw that screen, and gleefully forked over the number to the robot.

The moral of this story: always look for the "Decline" button, and always say "I'd rather not give that information out" when asked by somebody for your personal information when they have no real need for it.