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Who Has Access To Your Purchase History?
April 8, 1999
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At the risk of sounding Big Brother paranoid, you'd better be aware that almost every facet of your life is being tracked by someone, somewhere. If you don't believe me, let me tell you about Los Angeles resident Bob Rivera and his experience with a Southern California supermarket chain.
Mr. Rivera slipped on a yogurt spill and shattered his kneecap at a Von's Supermarket. The injury required surgery and ten days of hospitalization, keeping him out of work for an extended period of time. He filed suit, hoping to financially recover for lost wages, pain and suffering. As with many personal injury lawsuits, the court directed the parties to mediation with the hope that a trial could be avoided.
According to Mr. Rivera: "Von's representatives threatened to reveal records about my alcohol purchases at the store. My wife and I were loyal customers and used our "Von's Frequent Shopper"card every time we went shopping at a number of Von's stores." (Due to a gag order, both Mr. Rivera's and Von's attorneys could comment about this story. The suit was dismissed, but a motion for a new trial will be heard before the court next month.)
"Frequent Shopper" programs are designed to keep you coming back as a loyal customer, offering discounts granted only to cardholders; some programs even offer frequent flier miles as a bonus. According to Mr. Rivera, Von's knew he regularly bought large quantities of alcohol at their stores, a fact he readily acknowledges: "It's obvious to me that the only way they could piece together my buying habits was by examining my frequent shopper records." Even though alcohol wasn't a factor in the incident, the implications are obvious...and ominous.
Your desire to be a smart consumer and take advantage of special deals or discounts given only to frequent shopper card holders could be setting you up for a rude awakening in the near future. Who has access to personal buying information being compiled every time you scan or swipe your card at your favorite stores? Do you enjoy the convenience of having prescriptions filled at pharmacies located inside the supermarket? Suppose an accounting of the alcohol, tobacco, prescriptions or birth control products you purchased were made available to insurance companies or current (or prospective) employers; could you be branded as a promiscuous, depressed, or drug-abusing drunk?
Don't forget about video rental or book stores. What if a list of the movies you rented and the books you bought were added to personal buying profiles being potentially (and discreetly) compiled on all of us? Think about it, and welcome to the world of information mining.
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