Are you concerned about e-receipt data misuse?

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Although I object to some of the selling practices of Amazon [two-pin plugs, etc] and have had occasional delivery problems, I have been buying books from Amazon for years and cannot find any fault with their on-line processes. I find they have the fastest and most easily navigable website in the UK; I have never experienced any misuse of data; I have no objection to the website showing my default delivery address – it prompts me to check that it is correct or to alter it if I am ordering something for somebody else; it is of no significance to me where their tracking originates; and I find the suggestions and details of related or alternative goods quite helpful. Overall I think Amazon gives good service and has earnt the popularity ratings it gets – as evidenced in the Which? report on on-line retailers in the December 2018 Which? magazine. It would be much more expensive and more inconvenient to buy books any other way. For nearly all other products there is nearly always a bricks-&-mortar establishment within walking distance that can supply our needs.

I have an idea of what’s going on, Duncan, but see no easy way of avoiding surveillance by multinational companies. Having failed to receive satisfaction from Amazon over three safety issues I avoid using them unless there is no alternative.

I think there are big risks for people who are highly active on social media because on-line retailers and service providers can construct links to the individuals concerned and garner much more intelligence on their interests and requirements than with a customer like me who keeps a low profile, has very few on-line accounts, and makes no use of social media. My e-mail address is known to on-line retailers but I have never suspected any unauthorised access [in any case there would lean pickings if they did attempt it]. I have a high level of e-mail traffic but it is almost entirely within organisations I belong to and I consider it to be of very little commercial interest.

Thanks Duncan. That’s an interesting share, even if it is published by a rival software house.

As we’ve noted before, the best way to avoid sneaky spyware is to only use fully free and open source software.

That said, many organisations seem effectively locked in to the use of M$ Office. But perhaps that could change…

” There is currently no way to object to these practices. If you use MS Office, you’re a willing participant.

That’s already enough to feel uneasy, but there’s more. Initially denied, Microsoft now admit to collecting personal data. With the help of audit logs (originally intended for admins), they can easily obtain email addresses, user ids, subject lines and much more. Time for data protection officers to get that rope ready and brush up on their hangman skills! Sure, Microsoft should (and must) collect data to improve their software or web-based services, but, this time, they’ve crossed the line. It seems they’ve completely forgotten that data collection must be governed by transparency and purpose.”

If you want to be safe from US snooping whether it be personal or business it would appear to be stupid to use M$ Office in anyway online. LibreOffice being free and non-US [EU] has a lot to be said for it.
libreoffice.org/about-us/libreoffice-timeline/

For many years I have looked at file properties of Microsoft Office files that arrive by email. Many people do remove their name etc. but others do not. When I bought a house I never had any direct contact with the vendors but the estate agent forwarded a Word file with answers to my questions and the file properties indicated the file had been created on a computer registered to Capita. Looking at Exif data for image files is interesting too.

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In my experience, the file properties on my own Word documents often give wildly inaccurate information, except where I’ve taken the trouble to make sure everything is correct.

Duncan – Not me, other than doing research funded by our government-funded research councils.

Derek – Yes it can be inaccurate but it has helped me investigate plenty of cases of copying by students who were too lazy to do work for themselves.

A long time ago, I was warned about the inclusion of (a) hidden or tracked deleted data and (b) random additional data in Word files. Hence, where I worked, we preferred to send PDF files to clients (and others).

Yes, but PDF files may also show the name/organisation and date of the file and additionally what software and version has been used for creation. Exchanging Word files can affect pagination and result in font substitution, so unless the file is to be edited, PDF is generally the best option for sending files.