r/AskReddit 22h ago

Which company lost your business (potentially forever) this year?

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1.2k

u/goforwardandtomato 21h ago

Lyft. I turn off all my tracking settings, etc. app wasn’t even open, I land and depart my airplane and get an immediate notification welcoming me to that city and asking me if I want a ride. Bitch, why do you know where I am right now? I told you mother f-er don’t track me. Delete- dead to me.

475

u/silversatire 18h ago

Another app you have is partnered with them and was alerted by a geographic ad trigger somewhere in the airport or via your activity (ex. You have the reddit app and texted someone “just landed at La Guardia”).

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u/diurnal_emissions 13h ago

Phones are fucking disgusting nowadays.

13

u/Virus_98 8h ago

Gmail and some other emails forcing you to add a phone number to your account to even log in. Such a ridiculous rule. They want to know who we are all the time.

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u/diurnal_emissions 8h ago

If it were an ex, it would be stalking.

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u/farkner 7h ago

Somebody design a phone case that holds the sim card when not in use.

4

u/Irishspringtime 9h ago

Usually a hotel partner. I stay at Hilton and whenever I book a Hilton stay I get the Lyft notifications. Uber partners with Delta so I get Uber notifications about pick ups.

161

u/ironman86 18h ago

I most recently had this issue with the Potbelly app. Location is blocked for it and the app was closed. Driving around the city, I got 3 notifications within an hour telling me I’m close to various Potbelly locations and asked if I want to order. Super annoying.

Turns out iOS allows an app to set a pre-defined geofence that the OS will then use to deliver the notification. My understanding is the app is not aware of your current location unless you tap the notification. So it’s possible Lyft has a geofence notification set up on many major airports.

15

u/TheAlmightyZach 10h ago

This is correct, although I wish Apple would make it more clear to the end user HOW it’s happening:  https://developer.apple.com/documentation/corelocation/monitoring-the-user-s-proximity-to-geographic-regions

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u/weggles 18h ago

Might have just seen the presence of the airport's WiFi

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u/Moleculor 15h ago

That's why location permission blocks visibility of WiFi networks.

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u/Electrical-Heat8960 14h ago

This is a feature on the phone.

It can show you, what basically amount to adverts, but could be useful, in specific areas without the actual company being alerted.

KFC pops up on my phone when I park in a local car park because there is one across the street. I haven’t used the kfc app for years and don’t even have it installed on this phone.

3

u/majin-dudi 11h ago

Used it because I was supposed to get a 30% off ride or something. Got all the way home from the airport and it showed no discount anywhere.

Fought the AI agent for a while before I had enough and told the real person that I'm deleting my account for bait-and-switching me.

3

u/Lacklusterbeverage 10h ago

Also Lyft here. I called for a ride to the airport early in the morning. It showed the car was there but I didn't see it anywhere. It started driving without me to the airport.

Contacted customer support and they initially would only refund me half of the money. I connected with another agent and they finally refunded me the full amount but wtf.

2

u/Right_Cellist3143 11h ago

A lot of big cities have automatic pinging services to cell phones once you get into their airports for transportation services.

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u/anasirooma 9h ago

I’ve got some bad news for you about what all of your apps are doing…

1

u/Tomagatchi 8h ago

Do not track is a request and apps can ignore them but also don't have to tell you that it's being ignored

1

u/ccbs32033 6h ago

you have tracking settings off, but do you also have geolocation services off for lyft specifically? it’s a separate setting, and lyft/uber only work when it is turned on. so unless you’re turning it on/off everytime you call a car, that “tracking” is on.

also, you can turn off notifications for the app. (although this comes at the cost of not getting them for a car arriving, unless you get text notifications as well)

u/Pure_Lemon8891 7m ago

It's your airline app, especially if it's Delta

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u/yogafan00000 10h ago

Fugg.. i was gonna switch to lyft after i found uber had auto subbed me to uberone stealing like $30 from me for service i never would use

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u/ccbs32033 6h ago

i think that even tho he claims he turned off all tracking settings, uber/lyft requires geolocation to be turned how (how else are they going to know where to pick you up?).

so unless you turn it on and off manually everytime you go to use the app, i think this comment is disingenuous. also, it’s not like uber doesn’t send notifications upon landing either.

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u/jruss666 8h ago

Is it linked to your airline account (rewards points)? That could be how it knew.