Reply #13: Providing a phone number is consent to their data mining. [View All]

[Gormy Cuss]

Unlike a ZIP code, a phone number is a limited enough identifier for marketers to add to the reams of profiling data they accumulate about your buying habits AND if they also have your name as part of the purchase, your other demographic data. It's not a benign request.

I always decline. I've never had a clerk try to guilt me into providing it the way the OP described but that still wouldn't work for me. I have had clerks alert nearby managers and I've declined to them as well. I've found that the most effective way to handle it is to say to both clerks and managers that I understand that providing a phone number enables better profiling of me and I'm not interested in aiding retailers in that quest. If either hands me the load of bull about enhancing my shopping experience, I tell them that I'll enhance it by shopping at a store that doesn't ask for my telephone number.

Providing the telephone number may also increase nuisance telemarketing calls because it establishes a business relationship with the company (and all of its affiliates.) An existing business relationship exempts the business from honoring the Do Not Call list.