Data tracking through Loyalty cards.

a reply to: Malisa

My thought is that banks are big players that do not really care for my shopping habits and preferences as they are already playing the big money game. Instead I was just hoping to re-open awareness for the somewhat smaller little brother companies who can link together not only how much you are spending but what specifically you are buying, item per item, flavor per bag size, ect.

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
Here's the really criminal part of all this (IMO)...most people simply cannot afford to shop withOUT one of these frequent flyer cards! It's not uncommon to see 30-50% discounts when using these cards.

Here in Portugal we don't get those exaggerated discounts that show that the normal prices are inflated, we only get little discounts on some products, but we do get points that can be accumulated and used later, usually to get bigger discounts in higher priced products.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

The future of corporate world is going to be a hecking "fractal mobius matryoshka doll" Each corporation will be owned by a bigger one on a larger scale than it is right now and they will all trickle down to offshore shell companies and invert onto themselves for ad infinitum.

You want to buy a bootleg mickey mouse doll from a North Korean sweatshop for 5$ instead of a 15$ official product? Too bad, Disney owns the sweatshop and you are paying the actual price. But wait, there is more. Disney is owned by North Korea which is now a subsidiary of France owned Australian shell company in the Bahamas(tm) funded by the Scandinavian clown rebel forces secretly being double agents for the Russian oligarchy inc, still owned by Disney.

originally posted by: Hefficide

Though it's not being reported in the US that I know of, read an article yesterday that Home Depot and Lowes are both being sued for using security cameras and specialized facial recognition software for the same purposes...

Apparently when you walk in the computer can identify you and cross reference you with a staggering amount of information... Criminal history, if you've been in other stores in the same chain, how often you come to that chain, what you buy, how much you spend on average per visit etc.

The article mentioned that larger retailers like Walmart and Target do the same but no lawyers will take them on.

The cameras at the Walmart self checkout kiosks are supposedly supposed to be a part of this facial recognition package. I know our store doesn't have facial recog as we're too small to even have a proper security department, but the larger walmarts most likely do.

a reply to: RexKramerPRT
I have not heard that but I like the saying.
I try to avoid filling out into on those card applications. My Ralph's card is my old phone number from 20 years and two moves ago.
I still get junk mail