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does it really upset you that much that they know how often you buy bread, and what brand of toilet paper you prefer?

People's grocery "loyalty card" records have already been subpoenaed:

In one case, the federal Drug Enforcement Agency subpoenaed purchase records to see if a suspected drug dealer had bought a lot of plastic bags, which are used to package drugs. Another example is an alimony dispute where a woman used her ex-husband's purchasing records to show he had a good income because he bought expensive wine, Albrecht said.

Beyond that, their objective in collecting data about me is to more effectively influence my decisions. Why in the world would I want to make it easier for someone to apply mind control tactics to me?

I dislike the idea that credit cards and drivers licenses will probably all eventually have RFID chips in them. I also dislike the idea of grocery stores using shoppers discount cards to track people's shopping habits. I use an RFID blocking wallet, even though my credit card and driver's license probably do not yet have RFID tags in them.

A few companies have experimented with putting RFID tags into clothing for inventory purposes. Unfortunately, those passive RFID tags would then remain in the clothes when worn by customers. The uniquely identifiable serial number on each item in my clothing or wallet, would then make me trackable when going from store to store.

I prefer to do much of my shopping at the two grocery stores in town which do not use shopper's cards. The other store's database probably shows that I eat lots fruits, vegetables, beans and whole grains, along with modest amounts of grass fed buffalo meat. It would also show that I prefer organic foods and low sodium foods, that I totally avoid transfats and GMO foods, and do not smoke, drink or eat junk food. Perhaps, I should hope that my health insurance company gets a hold of that personal information.

I am also dislike the idea of governments possibly being able to track everyone's daily movements by knowing where their cell phone is at all times.

Call me paranoid if you want. But, even though I am not a Christian believer, I would still definitely reject anything that might possibly be the mark of the beast. For instance, I would not ever accept having an RFID tag implanted in my body (or anything similar).

• The Spychips Threat: Why Christians Should Resist RFID and Electronic Surveillance
• Spychips: How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track Your Every Move with RFID
• Spychips.com
• NoCards.org

I've always wondered: If you have more than one "loyalty card", does that make you a traitor or just a whore?

Both - you've already whored out your privacy for illusory cheaper prices with the first card.

No need to even decode communications from the RFID implant - holding up a crowd at gunpoint, would-be hijackers may just have to detect the carrier frequency emanating from a person (with a device that even high-school students could build), and "abduct only the chipped" for maximum ransom.

Moreover, their victims will be unfortunate enough to undergo removal procedures that are reported to be "one ugly mess" (didn't look up the original quote, IIRC it was by CASPIAN's Katherine Albrecht) even with the benefit of optimal surgical attention, which they are unlikely to receive - to the contrary, kidnappers on the run may consider it reasonable to quickly sacrifice "part of" their prey, making the "fear for life and limb" quite literal, with emphasis on the latter, while putting the abducted in a condition that will leave little time for negotiations.

Why are people so worried about Google selling them out?

Who said obeying a subpoena is "selling out?"

But, since you brought it up, INSTEAD OF ANSWERING THE QUESTION ASKED, here is the abridged response: Privacy is like pandora's box, once you let your personal information out of your hands you can never, ever put it back - even if circumstances change such what you thought was harmless is no longer harmless. If there is no compelling reason to let your personal information out of your hands, then why do so? For some people a chocolate bar is enough of a compelling reason. For others it is convenience, like ease of using toll roads or shopping at the supermarket. Some of us take our privacy a little bit more seriously than that.

And I think the telcos might be a bit more likely to divulge information than Google.

The telcos, as a rule, do not operate a business that is focused on targeted advertising. They do not have a business incentive to build up profiles of their users that could be vulnerable to subpoena or theft, they make their money by charging their users for services. Google isn't charging you a dime now are they? So it is entirely reasonable to expect them to build up as much of a cache of information about their users as possible because it means more accurately targeted advertising which means more revenue for them.

Where I live there are still two grocery stores in town that do not use discount cards, so I do most of my shopping there and frequently pay with cash. One is Albertsons and the other is the New Frontiers health food store. I have always disliked grocery stores who want to charge me more if I won't identify myself with a discount card.

Is big brother in your grocery cart?

Maybe it was all those gun magazines which you purchased at the grocery store where you used your shopper's discount card and paid by debit card. Or perhaps it was that subscription of yours to that gun magazine. Either that, or maybe it was when you purchased ammo at Wall-Mart and paid by charge card. Then there is also that monthly NRA magazine that gets mailed to you, through the postal system, each month. They might have also have seen how often you visit gun related websites. If you purchased a gun safely at a book store, you may have used that discount card you paid for and paid by charge card. If so, your transaction might possibly have ended up in a database somewhere.

The permit that you recently received to hunt Elk might strongly suggests that you have a hunting rifle. Does hunting quail or rabbits require a permit (I am not a hunter myself)? If so then they can safely assume that you have a shotgun. Here in Arizona, many average people have taken the course that is required to get a concealed weapons permit. If your wife has a concealed weapons permit, she probably sometimes carries a gun in her purse.

Te Bush administration is also trying to make the argument in court that the constitution does not protect the privacy of email. Data mining software might have noticed that email message where you were bragging to you friends about the size of the Elk that you recently shot. With these data mining techniques, they might be able to identify most gun owners.

Is big brother in your grocery cart?

Albertsons is the only major grocery store chain, where I live, which does not use shoppers discount cards. I shop there and usually pay cash. They would never know if I had ever purchased falafel. The local health food store also does not use shoppers cards. I would not want big brother to notice that I have never purchased any liquor and think that I might be Moslem or Mormon (I'm not either). At least, that occasional ham sandwich would show that I am not Moslem or Jewish. Of course that ham sandwich could have just been a trick fool big brother, did I ever actually ate that ham sandwich?

When most stores first came out with those shopper's discount cards, I disliked being told that if I refused to use the card, I would need to pay more. Do they really need to track my purchasing habits a database somewhere? Before long at the mall, a book store chain was selling discount cards to their regular customers. Big brother now probably knows that I read magazines and about ham radio, Linux, investing and dieting. Of course, I would pay cash and not pull out my discount card, if I were to ever purchase any books which might suggest inappropriate political or religious beliefs. Will cash be illegal someday?

Is big brother in your grocery cart?

Which doesn't really help any.

Except they have all the register data, and already know 'if you buy X you buy Y'. There is a website www.nocards.org that will give information about these scams. My favorite example is from that website, regarding how the card changed those discounts.

It's all bs, and that is why I food shop at Target: NO 'loyalty' card.

Except they have all the register data, and already know 'if you buy X you buy Y'. There is a website www.nocards.org that will give information about these scams. My favorite example is from that website, regarding how the card changed those discounts.

It's all bs, and that is why I food shop at Target: NO 'loyalty' card.

RFID could spell the end of the ubiquitous bar code. The big draw? Speeding up supply-chain management.

Some of you may be interested in reading a bit about these so called loyalty card programs here. http://www.nocards.org/

I am not usually the tinfoil hat type, and these people tend to go a little overboard with some of their logic (especially on the RFID side) but most of their information about the loyalty card programs I have found to be true.

Having worked for a grocery chain for 8 years and most recently a pharmacy chain for 12 years, I am very familiar with the pricing and promotion models used in both. Buying product, setting prices, and developing promotions was my job. The apparent savings offered to these loyalty card holders is nothing of the sort in most cases. Most chains simply raise the normal everyday price of an item and then offer what used to be the everyday price (pre card program) to only those willing to apply for and use the card. This is effectively charging a privacy tax to anyone not wishing to participate in the data collection program. Ironically, that privacy tax pays for collecting data on card holders, with no true cost benefit to any customers.

My favorite example of this is something near and dear to my heart, my coffee creamer. Back when only one of the three grocery chains in my town had a card program, my favorite coffee creamer retailed everyday for $1.19 in all three stores. Even the card store had to maintain that price everyday to stay competitive with the two non-card stores. This was a few years ago, when this card program was just catching on full force in the US. Well, eventually the other two chains joined in the scam and suddenly the price of my coffee creamer started to go through the roof. This item began retailing from $1.79 to $1.99 everyday but with a loyalty card price of $1.19 to $1.29. This is a non-dairy product, so fluctuating milk prices had nothing to do with it. If I had raised everyday prices in my category by 50-60%, I could have stopped buying and taken a long vacation before too long!

The pharmacy chain I left this spring just implemented one of these card programs about 6 months before I left. I was one of the only dissenters when the topic first came up in a marketing meeting. Everyone else claimed that we just had to have a loyalty program "because we look out of place if we don't." My stance was that not having one of these irritating programs could be a great marketing point. Unfortunately, most market research falsely indicates that the average consumer loves these damn things and of course our management team wanted to be loved.

Once it was decided that they would start their own program, I began to investigate the subject a little deeper and found the site above. It was at that time I also started to seriously think about my role in the process and began looking to get out of retail all together if I couldn't find a new employer with a little common sense and a focus on true customer service. I don't feel right charging more to people who simply wish to remain unmonitored.

If you are lucky enough to live near a grocer and/or pharmacy which does not have a loyalty program, do yourself a favor and support those stores. Tell the managers you shop in their stores because they don't insult your intelligence by offering you artificial savings in exchange for spying on you.

Let's hope what they learn about you is true.
http://www.nocards.org/news/index.shtml#fire

Charges dismissed!
Arson charges against firefighter dropped after another confesses

We previously reported that a fireman in Everett, Washington had been arrested for setting a fire in his own home. The fire was reported to have been started using a "firestarter" which, although charred, still had a "Safeway Supermarket" label attached. Police used Safeway club card records from the family to show there had been a purchase of the firestarters in July, and a police dog that was asked to track the arsonist repeatedly went from the fire to the homes front door.

This week the charges were dropped after "another person accepted responsibility for the fire" according to news reports. At least one media outlet, KIRO TV, is reporting that his wife was the one who came forward.

In our original article on this we noted:

Retail stores attempt to portray privacy fears as being groundless but the fact remains that this data is accessible, and will continue to be so for years. And even though this data "might" help law enforcement officers, the potential is equally large to implicate people who have committed no crime.

Q. Can club card records be seized by law enforcement agencies?

Absolutely. In fact, law enforcement has already been digging around in people's food purchase files -- which is part of why these records scare me. I personally don't feel like it is a supermarket's place to get involved in catching criminals, and even if I did, I couldn't support the collection of this sort of detailed, intimate information on tens of millions of Americans on the off chance one or two of them might have committed a crime.

Constitutional protections against unlawful search and seizure have (somewhat and so far) succeeded in keeping the government from digging around in the affairs of innocent citizens. But when private companies (like supermarkets) do the digging for them, law enforcement doesn't have to worry about that pesky Constitution. Let the private sector do the privacy violation and all you need is a search warrant to access what you wouldn't have been authorized to collect yourself.

Bear in mind, too, that someday the "crime catching" tables may be turned on you. Say down the road you get involved in a lawsuit and the opposition subpoenas your shopping record. Or an ex-spouse uses your file to show that you're not a fit parent. (After all, what fit parent buys condoms? Or beer? Or cholesterol-laden mocha fudge ripple ice cream?) Once information about your shopping habits is stored somewhere it will hang like ripe fruit; anyone who can get a warrant or a subpoena will have a wealth of information that can be distorted to make you look bad.

The only way to prevent these abuses of your shopping information is to make sure it is never collected in the first place.

When will the madness end?

I think you'll see pretty clearly if you search for discount cards actually result in higher prices that discounts are artificially created by charging everyone else a higher rate.

It's not a good thing.

Here's a good page linked from the search.

If this patent is valid, and Intermec raises the license fees high enough, it could kill RFID before the technology has really come into its own. What side will CASPIAN come down on? Will IBM stand idly by and let this happen? Will other tinfoil-hat-wearing consumer groups seize on this patent, or try to buy it outright to effectively halt the implementation of RFID?

This has the potential to fracture EFF and PubPat too, seeing as the privacy nuts will be all for anything that makes it harder or more expensive for RFID to become ubiquitous, but this sounds like a job for PubPat (or some other private entitiy) to investigate, to protect the very real benefits that RFID will bring to supply chain management.

or will this be a case where the Feds stand up to fight against a technology patent, now that the DOD has declared that all if its suppliers must use RFID by Jan 1 2005? Can the government claim eminent domain over patents or other IP? This page seems to address the question, but doesn't give me a clear enough picture of the consequences for suppliers when government takes an "eminent domain" license... and it kind of leaves me thinking that if Intermec sues the goverment, and the patent isn't invalidated, taxpayers will be left holding the bag twice.

Actually, there have been some statistical studies that found that your discount card doesn't save you money, compared to going to a supermarket without a discount program. It's just that if you go to a carded supermarket without having a card, you'll pay extra. Look at the bottom of this page for links to studies.

So no, you aren't actually getting anything in return for giving up some privacy.

If we demand more privacy, the cost will go up

In fact it is very well established that "loyalty" cards atually cause prices to rise rather than fall.

I knew that privacy advocates were fans of Katherine Albrecht's CASPIAN project, but I had no idea that she had the RFID industry this scared.

"Katherine Albrecht has some sort of weird thing in her mind that helicopters might descend and follow you, I mean, how low are these things going to fly?" said Shearer. "I don't understand it basically. She has a particular view, that she's doing God's work and is going to protect us from the globalisation of retailing."

It's been a while since I really scrounged through the CASPIAN sites, but I don't recall reading anything about "helicopters might decend" (and Google seems to agree with me). And a large number of folks in this country think that "doing God's work" is a Good Thing, and would take offense at "God's work" being used as a negative epithet.

They even try to say she's "anti-retail". What the heck does that mean? If anything CASPIAN is pro-retail, trying to preserve the ability of non-registered human beings to buy staple goods at a fair price. What's anti-retail about that?

If the RFID industry thought Albrecht was on the fringe, they'd ignore her. When you see IBM's mouthpiece painting Albrecht as a rabid conspiracy theorist, you realize they know she's not on the fringe anymore. And they're scared.

The open question remains: if the chips are so innocuous, why is the RFID industry so scared of this lady?

When I shop at a supermarket that wants some information before they give me a card, I use the name and address of their CEO's. For example:

Safeway CEO
Steve Burd
2130 Las Trampas Rd
Alamo, CA
94507-1862

King Soopers/Kroger/City Market CEO
David Dillon
65 Tejon St.
Denver, CO
80203

More information about loyalty cards and privacy issues can be found here.

Also, these cards may not save you any money at all.

It's not just you. CASPIAN, an anti-card group, has a blurb about a recent survey that showed supermarkets without loyalty cards ranked highest in customer satisfaction. (Full survey results here.) While there are many things that go into customer satisfaction, it does illustrate that you're not the only one who feels that way.

It's not just you. CASPIAN, an anti-card group, has a blurb about a recent survey that showed supermarkets without loyalty cards ranked highest in customer satisfaction. (Full survey results here.) While there are many things that go into customer satisfaction, it does illustrate that you're not the only one who feels that way.

You are right. I don't know if you know about this site but they expose the truth behind the "loyalty cards" as well as the RFID's.

And coupons for things that they want you to start buying. Do you really think they're doing you a favour? There's no way they are making a loss on "sale" prices, so the more generous-looking the offer, the more they're screwing you by default.

A good site for this stuff.

- I didn't have to give out my name or address to get the card, so it's anonymous data

- The data from my purchases helps them run their store better, so everyone's happy

Well, no. The data from your purchases helps them ditch "unprofitable" customers, so they ain't happy.

Around 1999, the supermarket industry got wise that the larger part of their profit was being made from a small minority of customers, ones that buy high profit items (like premium ice-cream). The card data lets them profile what the "profitable" shopper buys, and they send coupons and stock the shelves to please them. In the mean time, they try and discourage "unprofitable" customer by shrinking shelfspace for the lines that they buy, and the "profit" guys don't. Because of this, they don't really care what your name is (like they ever did as long as they got your money). They just want to know your profile and work out whether they still want you as a customer.

It doesn't take an Einstein to work out that the end result is to phase out the cheap, low margin, staples that the lower income bracket depend on in favour of Haagen-Daaz and Organic Cider. So after stamping out the local Ma and Pa stores with agressive pricing of these basic goods, they want to be absolved of the responsibility of providing them because they have a low margin.

In the UK, this is fairly mild at present. You get a percentage discount (as redeemable coupons) and the odd (targetted) product coupon. Some lines have extra "points" on them but the price stays the same whether you have a card or not. I hear in the US some stores pretty much enforce the uptake of these cards by using punitive prices on some basic goods - like offering the "sale price" pretty much where it was before but raising the no-card price to a silly level. Although the UK market does have a number of synergistic loyalty cards that cover several outlets (e.g. Shopping + Fuel + Electric + Others).

Curiously, the Wal-Mart (Asda) stores in the UK are one of the few that don't have profiling cards. But I wouldn't be surprised if they were tying shopping records to one-way hashes of payment card info (or if anyone else was).

In the meantime, can you imagine the opportunities afforded by RFID? No more do they have to offer the semblance of "loyalty" to get their profile data - they can just tie the purchase logs to the RFID in your shoes. Chains that collaborate can start tying clothes preferences to food preferences to any other preference, tracking your movement through stores (no purchase required!), hell, even noting how long you pause in front of the rack of iPods, with sub-floor RFID pickups. (<Marketroid>"He stopped and drooled for 10 minutes today, send him another brochure!")

The Ultimate Shopper for Safeway, and Rob's Giant BonusCard Swap Meet for Giant.

On a related hote, I just found a website for CASPIAN (Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering), which has much useful information.

Also of note, one of the leading critics of RFID, Katherine Albrecht, issued this press release today:

February 5, 2004

German RFID Scandal: Hidden devices, unkillable tags found in Metro Future Store Germans say, "Nein! We wont be your versuchskaninchen"

"We won't be your versuchskaninchen." That's the message German privacy advocates are sending to executives at the Metro Future Store in Rheinberg, Germany after discovering RFID devices hidden in the store's loyalty cards. They also found that RFID tags on products sold at the store cannot be completely deactivated after purchase, despite Metro's claims.

"Versuchskaninchen" is the German word for guinea pig, which is how German consumers feel Metro and its partners have treated them since opening the Future Store last year to test experimental RFID applications on live shoppers.

The revelations came just one day after Katherine Albrecht, founder and director of CASPIAN (Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering) toured the Future Store with a delegation of privacy experts from German advocacy group FoeBud, who sponsored her visit.

"We were shocked to find RFID tags in Metro's 'Payback' loyalty card," said Albrecht, after FoeBuD tested the cards with an RFID reader and discovered the tag. "The card application form, brochures, and signage at the store made no mention of the embedded technology and Metro executives spent several hours showing us the store without telling us about it."

"In retrospect, it's no wonder store employees appeared nervous when we asked to take a few of the cards with us," she added.

Vendors of RFID-enabled loyalty cards promote them as a way for supermarkets to identify shoppers remotely as they enter the store, using details of their identity and purchase history to pitch products to them and to track their movements and activities within the store. Prior to the Metro discovery, no major retailer had publicly admitted to using such cards.

In addition to the cards, Albrecht discovered that Metro cannot deactivate the unique identification number contained in RFID tags in products it sells. The use of unique, item-level ID numbers is one of the key privacy concerns surrounding the use of RFID tags on consumer goods.

"Customers are misled into believing that the tags can be killed at a special deactivation kiosk, but the kiosk only rewrites a portion of the tag, while leaving the unique ID number intact," she said.

Outraged German citizens are calling on Metro to put an immediate end to the trials.

"We are deeply disappointed at the Metro executives. They talked of an open dialog while hiding important facts from us," said Rena Tangens of FoeBuD. "We are calling for an immediate moratorium on further RFID testing as it is clear that Metro is not handling the technology responsibly."

Evidence of the RFID tag in Metro's "Payback" loyalty card, along with evidence of the incomplete deactivation of product tags, can be found on FoeBuD's website at http://www.foebud.org/rfid/.

This group, CASPIAN - Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering has information on RFIDs including Auto-ID: Tracking everything, everywhere. The group is also against loyalty shopping cards for similar reasons.

This group, CASPIAN - Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering has information on RFIDs including Auto-ID: Tracking everything, everywhere. The group is also against loyalty shopping cards for similar reasons.

From the article, with emphasis added:
Privacy advocates have decried such technologies as invasive, but TiVo officials say they do not pass along information that would identify individual viewers.

When gathering customer marketing research, TiVo says it does not link viewer data to their name, gender or age -- only into one big database that can identify users by ZIP code.

What's interesting is how the article points out what TiVo does not do. They don't "pass along" information "when gathering customer marketing research".

It's not stated outright, but that sounds like they do record all that information... but it's ok, 'cause they don't use it for marketing purposes.

Which, of course, puts TiVo right up there with the so-called loyalty cards "privacy" policies. They promise not to resell personal information, but they do gather it, and it's available to anyone who knows a friendly judge.

The bottom line, as usual, is simple. Don't buy anything at Kroger, or watch anything on TiVo, that you wouldn't want [John Ashcroft | your wife's divorce lawyer] to find out about.

By the way, does anyone know if Dish Network's PVR phones home about my rewinding habits?

The most impressive site I've seen about this stuff is

Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering

They've been tracking all manner of invasive (and, unfortunately, pervasive) supermarket marketing techniques for quite a while now.

And heaven forbid they link-up such tracking with our credit cards.

I think that this is inevitable. They already harvest huge amounts of data from their loyalty card schemes. With RFID tags they won't even have to pretend that they are doing it for your benefit.

How clever: Get people to be excited about being "tracked" with technology!

Check out this site for more information on how your privacy is being invaded today...

This group, CASPIAN - Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering has information on RFIDs including Auto-ID: Tracking everything, everywhere. The group is also against loyalty shopping cards for similar reasons.

This group, CASPIAN - Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering has information on RFIDs including Auto-ID: Tracking everything, everywhere. The group is also against loyalty shopping cards for similar reasons.

Have a look at this site they say, much about Mach 3 razorz and RFID,

they claim "Gillette shelf photographs unsuspecting shoppers!" and they have some pdf files here, and here to prove that Auto-ID Center is invading your privacy. There is also a (mirror) Video here which is currently on auto-id website here.

Have a look at this site they say, much about Mach 3 razorz and RFID,

they claim "Gillette shelf photographs unsuspecting shoppers!" and they have some pdf files here, and here to prove that Auto-ID Center is invading your privacy. There is also a (mirror) Video here which is currently on auto-id website here.

Catalina Marketing provides a multi-dimensional understanding of the customer by combining purchase behavior inside and outside of the store with demographical information, attitudes and preferences ... Manages one of the sixth largest databases in the world, containing over 100 million customer records

Great post! For more horror...

Right now, you can buy a hammer, a pair of jeans, or a razor blade with anonymity. With RFID tags, that may be a thing of the past. Some manufacturers are planning to tag just the packaging, but others will also tag their products. There is no law requiring a label indicating that an RFID chip is in a product. Once you buy your RFID-tagged jeans at The Gap with RFID-tagged money, walk out of the store wearing RFID-tagged shoes, and get into your car with its RFID-tagged tires, you could be tracked anywhere you travel. Bar codes are usually scanned at the store, but not after purchase. But RFID transponders are, in many cases, forever part of the product, and designed to respond when they receive a signal. Imagine everything you own is "numbered, identified, catalogued, and tracked." Anonymity and privacy? Gone in a hailstorm of invisible communication, betrayed by your very property.

Easy solution - trade your grocery card to someone else with one, and trade to someone else next month.

This isn't a solution to the real problem, any more than filling in the application with bogus data is a solution. There's no chance of anyone reading this message, much less modding it up, so I'll just note that full details of why the card in itself is the problem are available at the CASPIAN site: 10 Reasons Not to Use a Fake Card

CASPIAN also has some pretty far out claims when it comes to rfid technology. Among my favorites is this page which claims These tiny tags, predicted by some to cost less than 1 cent each by 2004, are "somewhere between the size of a grain of sand and a speck of dust." They are to be built directly into food, clothes, drugs, or auto-parts during the manufacturing process. Directly into food!?!? Seriously folks, I work for a major food manufacturer and we would never dream of putting these things directly into food.

Although labs might be able to produce microscopic tags, the ones we currently use in the industry are around 1 inch square (ever open a new book to find a funny sticker with metal in it?). The tags are also relatively extremely expensive. The two vendors I talked to within the last two weeks both quoted me a price of around $0.50 per tag for an order of 50 million tags, nowhere near the price we'd require for a realistic rollout.

In short, yes the tags will come and there will be some potential for abuse. And yes, it should be illegal for a stalker (or merchant) to sit in a mall and see what you're walking around with. But the hype is is way overblown.

Assuming that Ms. Albrecht's server can stand the strain, we really *need* to click that link and visit the page. A massive hit count (especially one that lasts beyond the original slashdotting) will be just one more weapon she can add to her arsenal when she presents her message to decision makers in government and in business.

I have a huge amount of respect for the CASPIAN folks -- I wish I could throw away my Kroger card, but I'm in an area where the only alternative would be to pick up an Albertson's card. Let's give 'em all the hits they can get.

Kroger has agreed (Barnes and Nobles and a few other retailers have agreed as well) to provide shopping profiles of individual customers based use of their savings card.

See this for moreInformation.

Here's an excellent site about those grocery store surveillance cards: http://www.nocards.org.

This study was really one of those government-funded studies that's always in progress. They just send some guys out to buy the same exact products from several stores in local communities. The big news in the last couple of years is that prices at stores (in my area) like FoodMax and Publix are, on the whole, about 30% cheaper than prices at Kroger or Food Lion. Even the discount savings using the card only knocks off about 10% of the average total bill.

(I do not have the data to back this up; these numbers are recalled to the best of my memory. This means that the best this post can do is get you to think about it and investigate it. I've already done so for myself, and I've made my decision about it. I only use my store cards to purchase alcohol and condoms.)

If Muhammed Atta drank double-mocha latte's at Starbucks on a daily basis, and I order the same thing, does that make me a terrorist?

Do you shop at a grocery store that has higher prices than most but then gives you "savings" if you use their "rewards card?" That's a great scam. You aren't paying much (if any) less than I am at another store, and you're giving them customer data for free. They track your buying patterns and sell the info. Yes, it's unpopular as hell on /., but you've got to admit it's opt-in as hell.

Of course, not all the data gets sold. A lot of it gets given to Ashcroft. Things that he'd have a damn hard time getting a warrant to sieze are getting handed to him by companies that see your private information as an asset of theirs. Of course, it is- you opted in. Just hope that you don't like (or have company coming that likes) the same food Atta liked. Make sure you don't rent the same movies he saw, either. No, it won't make you a terrorist, but it will make Ashcroft suspect that you are one. We've got people in custody; citizens being held without being charged. Ashcroft hasn't even told us who most of them are. They don't have access to lawyers (I'm still trying to find a downside to that one). If you don't mind all that, then by all means, opt in. If it isn't your idea of what the Constitution says ought to be happening, or even if you're worried that a bad person might smoke the same brand of cigarettes that you do, then try to help.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center has a nice page listing ways the companies get (and how they profit from) your data with tips to protect yourself.

The main concern is privacy not identity theft. See places like CASPIAN for examples of why identity linked databases for shopping tracking could be(and are being) horribly abused by these chains. The reason the finger print is even worse then the cards is that the finger print is linked directly to you and only you (barring forgery of finger prints of course) whereas with some cards you can put false or no information on signing up (although some require ID when signing up). If these fingerprints are correlated with any other database (IAO program anyone?) then suddenly anyone with access could know way more about you then you can imagine (think of the detectives that go through peoples trash to learn all kinds of neat things for an example of what I mean). The fact that your fingerprints are being linked to something as seemingly "irrelevant" as groceries is much worse then an ATM as it shows how pervasive we will allow this kind of tracking to be. Being paranoid doesn't make me wrong.

Most stores don't give a rats ass about your personal information. In fact, in response to public outcry against divulginf personal information, major chains that use the cards proclaimed "Just give us fake info! We don't care!"

The major problem with savings cards is that they use them to demograph their highest spending shoppers. According to a study in the late 90s, 75% of a supermarkets revenue comes from 30% of their customers. These cards let them know what those 30% buy (with or without knowing who they actually are), and to tailor their store to this group of people. The rest of us are screwed.

Here is a site (albeit with an agenda of their own) that has pretty good info about these cards. Check it out if your are at all interested.