'Big Brother' Supermarkets Know Your Every Move

[Purveyor]

How supermarkets get your data – and what they do with it

We all know supermarkets use information about our shopping habits to target us with personalised vouchers and offers – but how would you feel about sitting down to watch a movie and being confronted with adverts based on what was in your shopping trolley a few hours earlier?

Or what would you think about Tesco using its Clubcard database to check what you are eating, and possibly offering vouchers for salad and fruit if your basket is usually groaning with unhealthy items?

These are just two of the ways the supermarket giants are planning to make use of the data they gather on us.

For every loyalty point or coupon that Sainsbury’s, Tesco and the like dish out, they gobble up a huge amount of information about our shopping habits. We are all familiar with targeted offers linked to loyalty cards, but you might be surprised at the amount of data the big retailers collect on all of their shoppers – and even potential customers – and what they do with it.

If you have opted out of taking out a loyalty card because you don’t want “Big Brother in your shopping basket”, then too bad, because the supermarkets also track debit and credit card payment data and till receipts – so someone, somewhere, knows about that bottle of wine you bought at 12.28pm on Tuesday, and that you recently switched your brand of athlete’s foot cream.

MORE...

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/06/08/how-supermarkets-get-your-data-and-what-they-do-with-it/

[ohheckyeah]

1. Apples and oranges.

I can pay cash, I don't have to use a card. And I don't buy wine.

[WCGreen]

2. Hell I went to one on-line Comic Book store and almost every place I go that has ads...

there is an ad up in my screen for that store.

[In_The_Wind]

3. Supermarkets have been doing that for years.

[graham4anything]

4. I use c/c 100% of the time, and they know I use Charmin with Aloe. Who cares if they do

anyone not taking advantage of the discounts who later complains about how much things cost, is silly

[Purveyor]

5. With Krogers, you don't get their 'sale price' unless you use their card. Doesn't bother me and

about every 2 months, they mail us coupons for free products and they are actually products we use.

[graham4anything]

8. Yup.

[Freddie]

9. So does Giant

If "big brother spying" saves me $$ on stuff I would buy anyway, I'm fine with it.

[jbond56]

6. Kroch bros thank you for that.

[handmade34]

15. Charmin is

a product of virgin wood and bleached with toxic chlorine compounds... not that you asked

The tenderness of the delicate American buttock is causing more environmental devastation than the country's love of gas-guzzling cars, fast food or McMansions, according to green campaigners. At fault, they say, is the US public's insistence on extra-soft, quilted and multi-ply products when they use the bathroom.

Americans already consume vastly more paper than any other country — about three times more per person than the average European, and 100 times more than the average person in China.

http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/Global/usa/binaries/2009/2/tissue-guide-view-at-a-glance.pdf

[hobbit709]

18. I only have 2 requirements for TP. 1. It don't scratch my ass. 2. It doesn't shred when I wipe

[leftstreet]

17. Ooooh. You saved 40 cents wiping your ass

I see a revolution of the peasants on the horizon!

[Freddie]

7. You need the card for the discounts

And gas points (yay Giant!) but no wine, I'm in PA.

[NYC_SKP]

10. The workaround is using cash, but the PTB plan to eliminate currency...

Our children, or their children, will one day be forced to use only electronic transactions.

[shawn703]

11. If this doesn't concern you now

Wait until they make people's grocery shopping habits available to other parties. I'm sure health insurance companies would love to know who fills up their shopping carts with junk food so they can be targeted for a rate increase. Or maybe a potential employer wants to know what size clothes you bought recently before calling you in for an interview, so they can eliminate the heavier people from consideration without them knowing it.

[ohheckyeah]

13. It concerns and I express my concerns.

I am more concerned about Big Brother - the potential for abuse has much more dire consequences, IMO.

If corporations can use info to the extent you are talking about, how much more government?

[gulliver]

12. That's beyond Orwellian! nt

[Politicalboi]

14. I am a a 52 year old butch

And I get mailers for expectant mothers, and I have also been getting AARP mailers for the past 10 years.

[hobbit709]

16. It's cheaper here at other stores that don't have the card.

[LittleBlue]

19. Use cash

Problem solved

The point is, when I use a club card or debit card, I'm giving my permission for companies to collect data on me. I know full well that they have a record of my purchases. Unlike the NSA spying thing, where we can't opt out, and we're not even supposed to be aware of it.