The Pattison Food Group, which operates the More Rewards loyalty program through its Save-On-Foods, Buy-Low Foods, PriceSmart Foods and Nesters stores, said it discovered unusual activity on one of its servers on Tuesday.
It said the server was down and a third-party cybersecurity expert was brought in.
“The information includes name, and, if provided, address, phone number, email addresses, and date of birth.
Good thing the Carney Liberals are pushing surveillance bill c-22 so data breaches become much more dangerous. We need to tell our senators to stop this madness.
Maybe only a semi-related rant, but I think people should also really consider the security and privacy risks of having random apps from these companies on their phones.
By the name, it seems shops for cheap food. So many of their clients live with a low budget. Giving their datas most likely allow them to have better prices, special offers, and such things they need too much to refuse (unless they are security nerds).
Yet who is interested by the datas of poor people easily accepting things in hope of a financial help? Scammers? Criminal organizations looking for cheap workers?
Nesters is an organic higher price type shop, typically in richer middle class areas. Save-on is middle class. BuyLow and PriceMart are generally aimed at lower income /cheap deals.
You also overlook data brokers / AI companies / politicians in your list. Like, even if those had all been poor-person oriented chains, getting info about who shops there and potentially what they tend to buy, would likely be helpful for something like… say… ICE in the USA. Heck, you could cross reference that data with the list of names on the voter registry/govt lists, have it filter for ‘foreign sounding names’, to get a list of targets to follow up on. Poor refugees/immigrants might not be updating their address actively with the govt, but for a grocery discount with a store that supposedly won’t release the data to the govt because of privacy legislation… if a rogue AI ‘accidentally’ gets it, and a data broker then sells it back to the govt, you’ve basically laundered that data past the privacy leg.
My concern for poors were mostly that they are easy target for scammers offering too good solutions. Even the classical nigerian prince (or letter of Jerusalem / spanish princess ; it is the same trick) is far more efficient when personalized to the target. Also as many people claim they have nothing to hide to their gouv, not seeing that they aren’t the only buyers.
Even those who love their gouv may feel they have something to hide to those who want to scam them, and to those who want to use them as a leverage to scam their relatives.
But you are right, I forgot the american political context ; and as scary as it sounds, I am quite sure that with six monthes of groceries, some statistics can guess quite correctly the political opinion and country of origine of clients.
“Thanks” to AI, hallucinations make that political targets would be randomized enough so that it should also be a concern for those who “have nothing to hide”.
International treaties that were made decades ago, have not adjusted to the new reality of what the USA has become. That’s why you see stories like the server being seized in amsterdam recently, which allowed the USA govt to go after an ISP in a foreign country for hosting left-leaning websites. The administration declared “anti-fascists” as terrorists, and DEI, or even just “people who say AI instead of Super Intelligence” as the enemy. Now all their treaties with western countries that allow them to extradite / try their enemies, can get leveraged to go after foreign progressives.
Getting data that helps them ‘claim’ there are enemies in other countries, makes it easier. Even just pulling something like the last 6 months of grocery data, as you noted, could let them see, for example, which Canadians are continuing to buy American goods, and which Canadians are “the problem”. It can also help them better gauge the ‘real’ tone of the Canadian population, compared to the rhetoric spouted by the government. Lots of reasons to snag that data if you could.
The other two maybe, but despite the name Save-On Foods tends to be generally more expensive. So it’s not really aimed at poorer people.
There are also legitimate reasons that they are provided this data (like grocery deliveries). The shitty part is that they don’t have any privacy protections or policies, when I believe that they’re required to by law.
Tell that to the Liberals who want to force companies to hold even more sensitive private information as they try to legislate away private internet use. This is a serious threat.
if provided? Why would anyone give away more personal information if it’s not necessary?
The Liberals in Canada are pushing for legislation that will mandate companies store even more sensitive information which is so daft in the face of all these leaks. Private internet use is under attack.
“It’s just for marketing, it’s fine.”
-boomers probably
“It’s just for marketing, it’s fine.”
That is the lie that every company tells you.
Lots of people don’t even think twice. I logged in to see what info they had for me and it was all blank except my name and the custom email address I have for them. However, it did say that a birth date must be provided to change any info.
I could see a phone number being given here though, because these cards have been around a while, and it used to be common to give your phone number to look up your account at the cash.
Some people don’t think about that, and others might fill out the entire form that the employee hands them because they don’t want to push back for whatever reason.
As more people politely say no, the more comfortable people will feel with doing so
Phew, good thing I live in the cemetery and my name is Mr. Rogers.
I personally have an unlimited email address setup with my domain. Places only get a random email that I can just turn off if needs be.
Yeah this is the way
You can also have unlimited free trials really easy! EasyDNS offers a wildcard option so I do not even need to spin up a new address like I did when I used HostHero. I would suggest EasyDNS any day of the week now. You do have to watch the terms and services though, they strictly say you can not eat the cellophane and bubble wrap.
That’s good advice. I use ProtonPass aliases with a private domain, myself.
