You don't have to be costumer of a specific company to become a part of their dataset. Meta for example has been known for decades to create shadow profiles for people who are not using their services. Even if you avoid a few of these companies, you cannot dodge them all. McDonalds is just used as a tool to visualize the issue, but your supermarket, your bank, your phone company, your car, your power company and so on are all doing the same while tracking you everywhere they can, sell the data to each other and from data brokers. Changing your habits can only reduce the harm, but cannot eliminate it.

With the current surveillance push they try to reduce the gaps in their data profiles. This aggressive move into areas where they didn't have any reach before is more than concerning (and the reason why getting a non-Smart TV is becoming a real challenge and ALPRs are being pushed for so hard), because they are infiltrating the remainder of private life to reach their final goal: create a statistical model of you so detailed that they can predict your reactions before you are even aware that something happened. This is deeply intertwined with interests in politics and the tech bros into being able to create personalized propaganda while gutting you like a fish in every way they can.

The current speed of development in this area is absolutely fear inducing. This is the path to a fully automated, surveillance based high-tech feudalism where even the punishment for thinking the wrong way gets automated, so no human with their pesky morals can interfere. What we are currently experiencing is not new, but it reaches a completely new dimension, so reducing it to "this has been around for decades" does not cut it in my opinion.

Why use a credit card? Monero is much safer if cash isn't an option.

Another one that doesn't get talked about much is BLE beacons inside of many large stores. If Bluetooth is on (assuming a mainstream phone) these devices are constantly, passively pinging for it. At the very least, the store can use these to know how people in general navigate through the store, where they linger, etc, and can keep track of unique devices.

Worst case scenario: you've installed the store's app, given it full perms and you're logged into an account tied to your real identity. In that case, of course now they know it's you specifically, and can start to build a profile - your in-store location is just the beginning.

They may also know what other apps you have installed, who else you might shop with, can try to predict what kind of mood you're in based on how you're moving, where you're coming from, where you go after, and on and on.. Some of the implications are quite creepy. It gets to a point where enough people give themselves up voluntarily that they can unmask those who simply leave their Bluetooth on as well.

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