DUBLIN — Not long after my final online Christmas purchase had been acknowledged and dispatched, the review requests started to arrive. From the marketing folks at Kohl’s, Target, and Eason’s here in Ireland.

Would I care to rate my recent transaction, these terse e-mails asked, so that I might be better served in the future? (Of course, we all know the real objective of such requests: to compile a database of our consumer habits for distribution to other retailers.)