Just bought a 2m section of flexible tube for a gas stove, and the sales clerk asked first for my phone number, to which I replied “I don’t have one”. Then she asked me for my name, to which I replied “I’ll pay in cash”. She then insisted it was so “the cashier will call you by name”, to which I replied “I’m not giving you my name, I’ll pay in cash”. [Edit: she apparently got a bit upset when I refused to give info, but ended up entering “no name” according to the receipt]
Am I wrong for not wanting to give personal data for an item paid in cash, in person? No other hardware store ever asks me for my personal info.
Yeah you can lie if that’s your thing, but that doesn’t address or fight the problem, it just passes it off to the next person. Just be honest and up front, it’s better.
It’s okay to be confrontational. Everybody knows it probably isn’t their fault. But they also got mad when op said, clearly, “no”, so that’s on them at that point.
Another thing to consider: maybe the cashier doesn’t know they work for a shitty company. Goons do the bidding of evil people: they may not be evil themselves initially, but they are still the ones doing the actual actions. At the register, designing the database, putting up the servers, serving the companies, processing the data, etc. Everybody’s got a hand in this.
Just say no, stop being passive and saying okay. Just say no.