I had to give Dick Smith (A NZ retailer) my phone number before I bought an external the other day.
"Do I _have_ to give you my number before I buy this?"
"yes, but it's for return purposes only"
Of course I received 'promotional' txts the next week. I was hesitant to give it to them for just this reason, and because I acknowledged I had a phone number I felt obligated to give it to him. Dick Smith is a member of a larger chain it's no stretch of the imagination to hook up CCTV cameras to an OpenCV instance and send txts to customers when they walk in.
No matter the law, morals people hold, or customer wants large companies are always motivated by profit margins. The Consumer Guarantees Act, the Privacy Act, the Bill of Rights Act all become murky when you're dealing with new technology, and law will find it hard to keep up.
I'm surprised tat NZ doesn't have stringent laws prohibiting this. In Australia, if you give info for a pacific reason, that's the only thing it can be used for. Heavy fines can result if it's used in any other way.
"Do I _have_ to give you my number before I buy this?"
"yes, but it's for return purposes only"
Of course I received 'promotional' txts the next week. I was hesitant to give it to them for just this reason, and because I acknowledged I had a phone number I felt obligated to give it to him. Dick Smith is a member of a larger chain it's no stretch of the imagination to hook up CCTV cameras to an OpenCV instance and send txts to customers when they walk in.
No matter the law, morals people hold, or customer wants large companies are always motivated by profit margins. The Consumer Guarantees Act, the Privacy Act, the Bill of Rights Act all become murky when you're dealing with new technology, and law will find it hard to keep up.