Quickie vent - this happen to anyone else?

ewenner

I got some coupons in the mail from CVS the other day - nothing new, I thought, since they send me coupons about once a month.  Until I opened up the packet and instead of the typical offers for deodorant and shaving cream, I found coupons for diapers, baby wipes, and formula.  Really?!?!  I guess their fancy computer algorithm decided that since I bought HPTs several months ago, I must surely have a LO by now!  Sigh...

marijaa333

Yep: https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/02/16/how-target-figured-out-a-teen-girl-was-pregnant-before-her-father-did/

lcwed

It can be annoying sometimes.  When we had to suppliment with DD we had to use the special formula for babies with dairy intolerance.  Every time I bought the Similac brand, Albertsons would print out a $10 coupon for Nutrimagen.  Unfortunately, DD hated Nutrimagen.  I never got Similac coupons and ended up giving the other coupons to one of the parents at DD's daycare.  I think they try to push certain products that way.

KirstenAlecia

And here people are complaining about how intrusive Facebook it.....its really everywhere isn't it???

lgsdesigner

Working in a Marketing department, it happens quite a bit. Companies know EVERYTHING about you now. It's really scary and unnecessary.

Davie813

lgsdesigner said:

Working in a Marketing department, it happens quite a bit. Companies know EVERYTHING about you now. It's really scary and unnecessary.

They do.  When I turned 35, I got a birthday card from am online dating site I had never been a member of.  It creeped me out that they knew I was single and that it was my birthday, and it bummed me out that (I imagined) they assumed I would be in a hurry to get datin' due to my withered old ovaries.

Sadly, like the companies that assume pregnancy test=eventual baby, they're only partially omniscient.  I did actually create an account, although I never filled out a profile (there was a quiz linked that I wanted to take), and they're still, five years and one marriage later, sending me matches. /:)

kindershlitz

marijaa333 that was an interesting article

scary stuff

lgsdesigner

@Davie- Wow...that's depressing and wrong! Companies are just ruthless and heartless, now of days. Seriously. Let us live our lives!

C_Girlie

I don't pay too much attention to that. But cone to thing about it byes I do get coupons for baby products. I don't mind because I'm always invited to baby showers or toddler bday parties.

marijaa333

If you pay for everything with a credit card and would like to avoid your information being shared with marketing companies, tell your bank you want to opt out of all partner offers and completely limit sharing your information with third parties. With Chase, you can opt out yourself online, but I'm not sure if it's as easy with other bank.

I have tried to be as careful as possible with my privacy and as a result I get very little junk mail, while my husband gets 4-5 pieces each day. It's still an uphill struggle to avoid privacy intrusions.  This is probably the creepiest example I've seen in a while: https://www.vox.com/xpress/2014/8/17/6025339/google-maps-is-tracking-everywhere-you-go

:-O

ewenner

Glad I'm not the only one!  This has nothing to do with my bank, though - I'm pretty sure it's the little "loyalty card" that they swipe whenever I go in there.  I know some people who refuse to use those for just this reason, but I do like my coupons! (just not the ones for diapers.)   :P

Davie813

marijaa333 said:

Yep: https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/02/16/how-target-figured-out-a-teen-girl-was-pregnant-before-her-father-did/

That's kind of horrible.  And I'm extremely glad the grocery store I frequent doesn't have a loyalty card or anything (and that if they are keeping tabs on me some other way, they're not sending related offers) because what my purchases say about me is not especially flattering these days.

The part about how they throw non-pregnant stuff (lawnmowers, etc) in the coupon book as a decoy seems odd to me.  If everyone is getting coupon books full of random stuff so we don't know they're spying on us, why not just keep sending us the random coupon books and--not spy on us?  Then again, I don't work in marketing.  What do I know?

DjinnaG

I got a WHOLE lot of free formula coupons in the mail pretty much exactly 9 months after my wedding.  They were some seriously awesome coupons, but I don't know anyone that formula feeds.  Surprised CVS hasn't ever given me any baby-related coupons, considering I've been getting my folic acid pretty much exclusively from them (needed it pre-TTC for blood clots, but most people associate it with pregnancy) for years.  Bought a handful of their dollar tests last week with my reward $, so that may change.  Unless they do include Rx history in their algorithms, in which case all those rounds of Cytotec last month may have already put me on the list.  Or put me on a different one.