The One Question I Can't Stand at Restaurants ("What's your phone number?")(www.theatlantic.com)
11 pointsby Kaibeezy5 hours ago10 comments
  • timnetworksan hour ago
    MicroCenter does this. Why do I need to give my phone number for a $2 audio cable? The poor girl at the register started breaking down when I put a 555 number and made me change it to a fake number she couldn't recognize as fake.

    What is the management doing to them over there?

  • steelframean hour ago
    I just use my area code followed by 867-5309. It's quick, non-confrontational, and completely lost on whatever generation is currently manning the register.
  • BrentOzar23 minutes ago
    So, counterpoint: I live in Vegas, and I know firsthand that giving my phone number (which isn’t a Vegas number) at the host stand for check-in has allowed me to bypass lines, every time.

    If you frequent restaurants owned by the same company (in this case, José Andrés), you can end up as a VIP, and they’ll treat you differently. I’ve waltzed right up with no reservation, given my phone number, get greeted by name, and get sat down instantly despite everybody in front of me getting quoted a long wait time for the same number of people. Complimentary glasses of champagne, etc.

    Even works in other cities.

    So I’m just saying, I’m kinda okay with losing my privacy in exchange for that convenience.

  • wolvoleo3 hours ago
    I've never ever been asked for my phone number at a restaurant. Or any contact details whatsoever. Weird.
  • pluc4 hours ago
    Fake name, fake number. The faker the better.

    I'm John Hancock and you can reach me at 911

    • jareklupinski3 hours ago
      start with "yea its Plus 48..." and then wait for them to give up finding the plus key
  • cisc5 hours ago
    > “We try to build a database on everybody and get as much information as possible,”

    Gross.

  • nubinetwork4 hours ago
    Phone number is fine, I only got one of those, it's an easy no...

    The one I hate is when places ask for my email address... even if I wanted to, I have like 6 email addresses, which one do you want? Don't ask me to repeat it 20 times because you can't spell. Fuck it, I give up, no email either. :(

    • ButlerianJihad3 hours ago
      Years ago, I used "the + extension" with Gmail for practically every site and every account I created. (Of course, also before "Sign in with Google" became ubiquitous.)

      This was only manageable because I was already using a password manager app. And so with every service, I'd need to scrounge up the email address I'd made up for it, along with the password. Not always easy or straightforward. Also, when calling Customer Service, the first thing they asked: "What's your email address?" and I would need to do exactly the same scrounging, just to tell them the right answer.

      So I eventually abandoned "the + extension" and I nearly stopped using "alternate email addresses" and I standardized on one singular email address for practically every account. This has made lookups much, much easier.

      However, I did use it as recently as 2021, and it served to notify me of exactly where a particular flood of spamming and phishing came from. I used it once for an "Echovita" service and they subsequently had a massive data leak. I still get Echovita-related spams and phishing emails. But I can always tell them apart, because they are perpetually addressed to <emailaddress+Echovita@gmail.com>

      • pluc3 hours ago
        Fastmail (and I assume others) let you create "masked emails" (read: ephemeral aliases). You can do it with your own domain too. Couldn't live without it.

        https://www.fastmail.com/features/masked-email/

        • steelframean hour ago
          I have been using the alias feature for years now with Fastmail. Deleting an alias is hands-down the quickest and most convenient way to unsubscribe from whatever drivel a company ends up sending my way care of their slimey marketing vendor.
        • aeve8902 hours ago
          Is it the same feature offered by SimpleLogin from Protonmail?
          • pluc2 hours ago
            Arguably. SimpleLogin is an integration with Proton, not a Proton feature. Fastmail integrates its feature with 1Password and Bitwarden without the need for additional add-ons, I don't know how SimpleLogin works but it feels more akin to Mozilla Relay and whatever else exists out there to create ephemeral addresses - but ultimately the feature integration might lead to the same use case.
  • TZubiri2 hours ago
    > A man walks into…

    > The man was me…

    why would you write like this? maybe to make it seem like actual journalism instead of just writing about how you went out for dinner yesterday?

    just be straightforward, gonzo journalism is valid and you don’t need to be embarassed by your burgeouis lifestyle that you need to turn it into some civic privacy op ed, just confess that the lobster was pretty good but too buttery

    • add-sub-mul-divan hour ago
      It's okay if you don't like every sentence you read. You don't have to make it a thing and you don't have to tell us. It's better for yourself and for us if you silently move on. There are so many sentences.
  • FuzzywarmWalnutan hour ago
    [dead]