The Boston Globe has a good article today summarizing some of the ways stores are using data gathered while we shop: Risks mount as stores mine a wealth of shopper data. They talk about loyalty cards - high on my list of things I'd like to "unvent" - but also credit cards, data collection at the register, etc.
Two quotes from the end of the article stand out:
"For some merchants, getting consumer data is the first priority, protecting is an afterthought...One reason: Penalties for failing to safeguard personal information are rare."
And:
"'Customers ought to be cautious and consider what they are gaining for giving that information, where the information is going and who else is going to have access to it,' [Lauren] Noether [chief of the New Hampshire attorney general's consumer protection and antitrust bureau] said. 'It may not be worth what they're getting in return.'"
Exactly.
Comments (3)
Hi, I'm James. I am a loyalty tag addict.
When I go to the grocery store I purposely hold off giving the cashier my loyalty card until everything is rung-up even though there are signs demanding it earlier. I just love the rush of watching the dollars come off my order.
A good thing my grocery store would never use my data against me.
Posted by James | February 5, 2007 10:23 AM
Posted on February 5, 2007 10:23
I was once in line behind a woman so against loyalty cards that she loudly and forcefully rejected an offer to use another customer's card.
Me, I'll gladly accept a swipe of a check-out line neighbor's card. Randomly skewing the data like this gives me even more pleasure than the few bucks I save.
Posted by Susan | February 6, 2007 8:06 AM
Posted on February 6, 2007 08:06
Loyalty cards are a gateway drug in the world of data addiction. They're pretty harmless right now, but someday this tracking will get really good and we won't even notice. (RFID, cashless transactions...)
Of course, my position has already been: "Have a problem with privacy? Too late." That genie is already out of the bottle, has been for decades. What we put up with would have appalled our ancestors, and so on, and so on. The efficiency of the market is driving society to a place in a century that none of us would feel comfortable with now.
Posted by Jason | February 6, 2007 11:35 AM
Posted on February 6, 2007 11:35