How did they get my email address?

Factual Questions
1

I’m traveling for the holiday and visited a coffee shop. I made a purchase with my credit card, asked for username/password to access the house wifi, and by the time I logged on to my email I already had a receipt from Squareup.com with the amount and details of my purchase. Huh?

OK, my email address is first.last@gmail.com, but I didnt think vendors had access/authorization to electronic information directly from the card transaction.

So, does anyone have the facts on how this process works?

erpa

2

Wow. I share my location with various apps, but I don’t think my email is included. Interesting.

3

Gmail. Google’s right hand knows everything its left hand is doing. Everything with a G in it is interconnected.

4

This is actually less complicated than you think: you previously made a transaction with a merchant using SquareUp and gave that merchant your email. SquareUp stores e-mails associated with credit cards and will automatically send you a receipt for any subsequent transaction with a SquareUp merchant if the merchant has that feature activated.

5

This.

I’ve had the same behavior at many merchants where I never gave them any identity information at all; just handed them the same CC I’ve used for previous Square purchases.

6

I have an Amex card with Costco and I get a rebate at the end of the year consisting of a percentage of my purchases. Whenever I use that card at any store, gas station, etc. it shows up immediately on my iPhone. Of course Amex has my email address, but I also have KeyRing on my iPhone and the Costco card is one of the cards I scanned. The notice does not appear in my email, just as a notification on my iPhone.