Free for the Price of Your Data
7-Eleven Turned Free Slurpees into Data Collection
Every 7/11, the Dallas-based convenience store, 7-Eleven, gives out free Slurpees on their homonym date. My parents took us on a neighborhood adventure every year, and my sister and I became experts at filling the bubbled lid to the brim with the frozen drink. The drinks were free, any flavor, and untraceable.
After work this year, I was ready to visit my local 7-Eleven to receive my free Slurpee, Coke-flavored as always. I sent an enthusiastic text to my friends, “Don’t forget, it’s free Slurpee day!”
Then, one friend texted back, “I have to install the app first.”
I had never needed an app before — you simply go in and receive a free drink. My friend showed me screenshots of the notice 7-Eleven has sent, requiring an account on their app where users must give the company an email or phone number to “qualify” for the free drink. I was shocked.
7-Eleven had suddenly enacted a “lead magnet”, a tactic to require users to share personal or contact information in exchange for a free good or service. Lead magnets cause an inconvenience at a crucial point in a work flow so that consumers enter their information to continue a task they are already committed to finishing.
7-Eleven was hoping that the lure of free drinks was enough for users to hand over their personal information in a rush.
Data collection in this way can be very lucrative — companies can gain contact information to advertise to, estimate of your location, sell your data if you haven’t opted out, and join personal information with even larger data sets potentially purchased from data brokers who sell sets of consumer data to trace your overall consumption patterns for a long time. Data collection is an additional way to monetize the 7/11 holiday.
But it’s not the only way.
Once people are in the store, they are also likely to spend more money, even if 7-Eleven is not their usual store. After I got my free drink, I slurped it while pumping gas. The kids after me got 3 free Slurpees while their dad bought beers. 7-Eleven was already generating income with their free Slurpee holiday in more ethical ways than demanding personal data through the app.
Familiar with the 7/11 tradition, I decided to go to the store. I came out with a completely free Slurpee, no data exchanged.
My friend, faced with a privacy invasive boundary, did not go to the store at all.
How many other potential customers did 7-Eleven lose this week because of their unnecessary data collection?
