This just occurred to me earlier.
The other week, I went to Phones4U to buy a new mobile. I chose it, the assistant got the box, everything cool. I open my wallet and hand her £80 in cash (£70 phone and mandatory £10 top up).
Assistant: "oh, if your paying in cash, then you can only have the phone if you buy a £20 top up!"
Me: "Why?"
Assistant: "Because, if you pay by card, Orange will get your name, address, bank details etc, and thus offer the phone with only £10 top up"
Firstly, there is no sign in the shop, or indeed in Carphone Warhouse that states you have to buy more credit if paying by cash. Secondly, if I walk into Phones4U and buy a phone on my card, at what point in that transaction have I authorised Phones4U to pass my personal data, ie, everything they can harvest from my Visa Debit Card, to a seperate company, Orange?
There are no signs stating that anything I do means I am waiving my data rights and allowing them to pass my details on, I am not asked to sign a waiver, indeed, a normal transaction is, choose phone, assistant scans phone, I put my card into machine, pay, get my receipt, walk out.
Surely they are breaching Data Protection?