How did they know my email address

[rapidfyre]

I visited the Lighting Direct website and added a product to my basket, but decided not to proceed. A short while later I received an email asking if they could help me to complete my order. Given that I've never bought anything from them before, and didn't give them any personal information, how did they get my email address?

I find this sort of thing sinister and very off-putting.

Do a GDPR request to the company and find out what details they Hold for you, if you are genuinely confused.

@golightlytoday

Do a GDPR request to the company and find out what details they Hold for you, if you are genuinely confused.

For that I'd have to give them my name and address, which is probably more information than they have already.

I think it must be hidden in the cookies message that we all accept without reading.

I had hoped that GDPR would have made all this go away. I ignored every single one of those 'please accept marketing from us' emails in the belief that it would stop me receiving marketing emails, but it looks like they've found a loophole.

We were led to believe that they were only allowed to email us after receiving express permission and they weren't allowed to auto fill consent boxes etc. Well that's clearly bollocks isn't it?

Or else they're just sticking two fingers up at the rules in a 'we have better lawyers than the ICO, you won't actually do anything' style.

I'm relatively tech-savvy and generally do a pretty good job of warding off unwanted mail, which is why this one stood out.

I don't think Cookies hold personal information - or at least if they do (e.g. for auto-filling forms) then they definitely should not be readable by random third parties.

I think it must be hidden in the cookies message that we all accept without reading.

I'm one of those terribly boring people who does look for the 'other options' or 'learn more' button rather than clicking immediately on the 'yes, please stalk me across the web' button.

When they brought the law in that websites have to ask, in theory, it was a good thing, as it allows you to take control of what you let them do with your data; however, the flip side of it is that, when almost everybody clicks on the 'OK' button rather than bother with the opt-out faff, that gives them indemnity if they get complaints further down the line, and they can quite legitimately say "But we asked you and you said Yes!"

Google knows everything, tracks everything, shares and sells everything. They are even monitoring and blocking emails sent to our MPs atm.

@CoRhona

Sometimes I have been thinking about what to cook for dinner - not said anything aloud - and a recipe comes up with exactly that ingredient.

And many times a recipe doesn't come up with that ingredient.

We tend to only remember the times it does happen, and forget all the times it doesn't.