I agree! Winners does this and I always say (politely, of course - I don't hold it against the clerks) I'd rather not share my information. As long as you say that, they don't mind. I figure refusing to share it - rather than making up fake numbers etc like I used to do - makes a stronger statement by making them notice that we'd rather not be 'tracked like an animal'.. because that is sooo what it feels like.

I agree as well. Nowadays stores often ask for a phone number or a postal code. They often want to tag and track us in some way or form.

So then what do you do with Safeway ? My impression is that since they introduced their membership system (a long time ago) their prices actually went up, so now any decent prices are available only to members. I agree, tracking sucks and at Ikea (for ex) I always refuse to give them my postal code, but this Safeway is sooo conveniently located. Would be interesting to find out how much of their sales are actually tagged (the buyer provided his member #)

I tried being nice to them at first, and politely saying, "I'm sorry, but you don't need that information." But, I would still get the confused look, and even the, "I'll have to call my manager over." So, now I just blatently say, "No! You don't need it!" or "That's none of your damn business!" Usually gets the point across. Making up fake phone numbers or postal codes only works if they are obviously fake, like H0H 0H0 (yeah, that's right, I'm Santa, deal with it).

I recently went into Sport Chek to buy some items. Now at first they didn't ask me for any of my personal information, probably since they were happy enough to be getting my Credit Card Number, and even my Air Miles Card and figured this was enough info to track me down if they needed to. Anyway, as the incompetent clerk was ringing in my items, she felt the need to double charge me for one of the items. I didn't think this would be a big deal, but apparently she had to go through the process of completing the sale, and then crediting me back the extra money. As a part of going through the refund process, she then asks me for my phone number, because it is "required" for the refund process. At this point, I told her to enter her own phone number since she was the one that screwed up the whole process. She was very baffled by that one.

Radio Shack asking for your phone number when you bought batteries used to be the big joke. These days it seems everyone is asking for personal data and I hardly blink anymore.