trading my privacy for a discount

[resolution]

We got a call last night from the grocery store to let us know that the arugula we bought two weeks ago was under a recall. They advised us to throw it out if we hadn't eaten it yet (it was already eaten). I think it was nice of them to call everyone that had bought it, but I am a little bothered by the fact that they keep a record of everything that we eat.

We save about $120 a month by using the store card when we shop, and they also mail coupons to the house every few months for things like milk and bread. I know that ultimately I will keep on using the card to get the discounts but sometimes I wonder if it is worth it to give up all privacy about my lifestyle. I pretty much do the same thing with other purchases being on the credit card, just by running the store card and the credit card someone could know almost everything about my life.

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

That store card, attached to my keychain saved me about $80 in lost keys fees from work when my keys fell out of my pocket. I got a phone call from the store, asking me if I had lost them and they were mailed to me and in my hands in 3 days.

[justwhoever]

I'm strange. I don't care either way if someone knows what I am eating/buying. I've nothing to hide and I don't plan on starting some illegal habit. Watch me....LOL.....you'll be BORED to tears.

[TrixAre4Kids]

Wait til the insurance companies make a deal with the stores to find out about all the smokes, butter and cheesecake you're buying instead of broccoli and lettuce! (I still use a store card for the discounts too )

[❤ mollymouser ❤]

My grocery store purchases are pretty basic, pretty boring, and aren't really a matter of great privacy. Heck, I post about them all the time online! (grin)

[illinicheme]

I'm not bothered by it. Same way I have no problem using a toll transponder. All that someone would see from that is that I drive around the Bay Area a lot, particularly crossing the GGB every weekday to get to work.

I'm certainly not going to go to the extent of signing up for that service that broadcasts your credit card purchases to various social media outlets (largely because I can't imagine that being anything other than BORING), but I don't particularly care if a store has a record of my purchases.

[Peace Of Mind]

Jan 27, 2011 14:39:04 GMT -5 @justwhoever said:

I'm strange. I don't care either way if someone knows what I am eating/buying. I've nothing to hide and I don't plan on starting some illegal habit. Watch me....LOL.....you'll be BORED to tears.

This is exactly how I feel too. And I hope cameras are put in public areas because if somebody robs me or attacks me I want them caught! I don't do anything illegal and have nothing to hide.

[alabamagal]

and what if that phone call had saved you from a trip to the Dr or emergency room?

Of course the 2 week old arugula might have sent you there also......

[resolution]

Like I said, I appreciated the call about the arugla even though it creeped me out a bit. I just hope that my health insurance or facebook never interfaces to the liquor store.

[haapai]

I wonder about the trade-offs too. Your purchases say a lot about you and some fairly interesting correlations between purchases and your chances of default can be drawn. I read an interesting story a couple of years ago about an obviously bored Canadian VP of a tire chain who delved into the mountain of data coming in from their store card. (It was also a general-use credit card.) He found some interesting correlations. Customers who bought certain (incredibly tacky and tasteless) automotive accessories had much higher rates of default, as did customers who had used their cards to pay for purchases at a particularly rough and colorful bar.

He was able to do this without a whole lot of computer savvy and with fairly limited data on what people had actually purchased. (He only had UPC-level data for purchases at his own chain. When the card was used elsewhere, he had far less data to work with.)

When he tried to peddle his results and method to others, he had no takers. Nobody wanted to face the consumer backlash. They all agreed that his findings were fascinating and that there was probably more to them than the Texan sharpshooter phenomena, but nobody wanted to be known for drawing adverse conclusions regarding their customers on the basis of what they had bought or from whom.

I wonder how long that squeamishness will last. It's hard for me to believe that credit card issuers aren't doing similar analysis and being very quiet about it.

But back to the grocery store discount cards, they actually don't worry me so much. There's no account that could go unpaid, so the advantages of identifying unprofitable customers are much weaker. I suppose, in theory, they could identify customers who filled their baskets with loss-leaders and didn't buy enough other stuff to make up the difference and cause their discount cards to malfunction, but I'm not sure doing so would actually improve their bottom line. It would probably just irk a determined customer and tie up tons of labor at the store site.

[8 Bit WWBG]

Mine is under a fake name and number. The bar code on my safeway card was printed with such cheap ink, that its long since grated away. Since I can't enter the card number and can't remember the phone number, I just enter 1234567890 and it works.

Someone looking at my CC could find out quite a bit about me and the things I buy. There is a reason that profiling is done... because overall it works. There are always going to be exceptions, but the research can make a great starting point.

[haapai]

I've heard that if you ever use one of those grocery discount cards and pay via credit or debit card, the customer data that you originally gave is overridden with the data from your card.

It's probably safe to assume that the customer data associated with account number 1234567890 is being continually overridden. There's probably so many other folks who have caught onto that trick that your name isn't associated with that purchase record for more than a few minutes each time you use it.

[zibazinski]

DF gets creeped out that I have a sunpass attached to my car window because he feels like big brother is watching him. When I told him I really didn't care if the whole world knew we went to Key West for the New Year, he thought I was weird.

[haapai]

Jan 27, 2011 17:15:41 GMT -5 zibazinski said:

DF gets creeped out that I have a sunpass attached to my car window because he feels like big brother is watching him. When I told him I really didn't care if the whole world knew we went to Key West for the New Year, he thought I was weird.

He sounds like a guy who has never been to Key West before. Honestly, some (usually straight) boys worry too much! I'd give him a heck of a ribbing for that. Then I'd inform him that since the pass was attached to my car, how is anyone to know that he was sitting beside me.

After the trip, I'd ask him why he was worried about the sunpass and not about using his credit card while he was in the keys.

[zibazinski]

It wasn't the idea of Key West, although he was worried that some stranger would kiss him on the street at midnight!!! I could have cared less having been to the Keys a lot. It was that BIG BROTHER would know that we drove around Florida!!! He's a bit odd.

[share88]

I have a fake name and use cash.

[alabamagal]

If I was doing something wrong, or didn't want people to find out about it, I wouldn't use store rewards cards, credit cards, automatic toll pays etc. Since I don't care if anyone finds out what groceries I buy, where I spend my money, or when I travel to FL with my Sunpass. I actually like that the grocery store can print out a coupon I might want, or another store donates certain amount of purchases to my DS private school.

I have heard about Sunpass accounts being used in things like divorces, basically to prove that someone was visiting someone that they claimed they were not having an affair with. Again, not something I am worried about.

[Gardening Grandma]

I use the grocery loyalty cards, but do have privacy reservations. However, it's easy enough to put another zip code or phone # on the app. That's all the info they've insisted on from me anyway.