I was looking through information regarding personal data and how it’s used when I found this article on Shiru cafes. This business started in Japan and now has outlets in the USA. It’s also looking to expand into the UK.
They serve coffee to students and no cash or card transaction takes place. Instead, students are asked to hand over personal data...date of birth, phone number, email address etc. They must agree to being contacted by a number of companies that support Shiru’s business venture through corporate sponsorship. Also, as students enjoy their coffee, specially trained staff inform them of the companies and sponsors behind this venture. It doesn’t seem to bother many of the students, one even saying that everybody seems to have your data anyway so why not? But there’s more than just data at stake, a student’s future employment prospects could be too. Shiru have said that 40% of the JP Morgan hires from Brown University were Shiru cafe patrons.
This is an interesting section from the linked article below:
In response to a request for more information, Alex Inoue, Shiru Cafe's general manager, wrote in an email that the cafe does not give out data on specific students. But it does provide general, aggregate data such as student majors and expected graduation years.
It’s interesting because it appears to directly contradict that students must consent to being contacted by various companies and organisations. Maybe I’ve misunderstood but it seems to me that if a company has been given your contact details in return for coffee, it probably knows who you are.
I declined all cookies in the link to this article so it's text only.
They serve coffee to students and no cash or card transaction takes place. Instead, students are asked to hand over personal data...date of birth, phone number, email address etc. They must agree to being contacted by a number of companies that support Shiru’s business venture through corporate sponsorship. Also, as students enjoy their coffee, specially trained staff inform them of the companies and sponsors behind this venture. It doesn’t seem to bother many of the students, one even saying that everybody seems to have your data anyway so why not? But there’s more than just data at stake, a student’s future employment prospects could be too. Shiru have said that 40% of the JP Morgan hires from Brown University were Shiru cafe patrons.
This is an interesting section from the linked article below:
In response to a request for more information, Alex Inoue, Shiru Cafe's general manager, wrote in an email that the cafe does not give out data on specific students. But it does provide general, aggregate data such as student majors and expected graduation years.
It’s interesting because it appears to directly contradict that students must consent to being contacted by various companies and organisations. Maybe I’ve misunderstood but it seems to me that if a company has been given your contact details in return for coffee, it probably knows who you are.
I declined all cookies in the link to this article so it's text only.
