When Starbucks baristas in Calgary, Canada, call across the café to let “Jonah” know his iced coffee with almond milk and caramel syrup is ready, it’s Rhonda O’Blenes who heads to the counter to collect the drink.
That’s because O’Blenes, a 46-year-old social worker who doesn’t even know a Jonah, uses a fake name in her Starbucks Corp rewards app. Her kids’ names used for drink orders are aliases too, and the address provided to Starbucks is a condensed version of her real one. For as loyal as she is to the coffee giant, O’Blenes wants to give her app as little real information about her as possible.