Did a bunch of shopping via Rakuten! I think I understand how their business works. Not sure about the system though. Do they send a token to say Nike and then after a purchase is made, Nike updates Rakuten about the transaction? But this would cause client changes (Nike would have to make changes for this). is this done via cookies? TC: 170k and falling
The Rakuten you’re using is eBates; it’s based on a system of affiliate links. Yes there’s a cookie that tracks the transaction. There’s a period of time you have to wait before the cash is actualized (3 months?)
And then Rakuten sells your purchase history
Rakuten don’t sell user data … we are a business who values its users and their privacy…
Rakuten works directly with stores as well as affiliate marketing networks. The click you made that leads you to our partner store (Ex Nike) is called a tracking ticket. You can see your tracking tickets on your account. This is what aids our networks to tie your Nike order to the tracking ticket. We have an elaborate system to calculate the correct cashback we promised you on Nike at the time you clicked on it. Networks send us a commission for that sale lead. Unlike Google/Yahoo and a bunch of other companies that make a bunch of money by sale/click leads, we don’t keep all of that commission. We give most of it to users like yourself. We only keep a tiny fraction to run our business. As for data collection we only collect minimum viable data to help improve user experience (Desktop/Mobile/In-Store/Button) and make it as easy as possible for the users to get the biggest bang for their bucks. We don’t have a business model that relies on selling user data and neither do we need one. Our business works purely on user loyalty and we fiercely guard whatever minimum viable user data we have in our system. Thank you for being a loyal user!
Use an ad blocker and see how many trackers on these websites. Now you know how they work.
Ad blocker does allow certain trackers to track. Based on who compensate them to show ad or to track