Stores Use Discount Cards To Notify Of Recall

crazyj writes "USA Today is one of many sources running a story about how some supermarkets used their "discount" shopping cards to notify customers of a beef recall. Interestingly, some stores did not use the information because they felt it violated the customer's privacy. I always use a fake name and address when I sign up for those, but do others feel that the stores were justified in 'violating' their privacy agreement?"

Comments

Absolutely they did the right thing

[plover]

The "frequent shopper" cards are no more than an undisguised marketing tool. You should expect no privacy, since you are, in fact, giving up your privacy in exchange for a few cents off.

Given that there is no moral reason for them not to contact the purchasers of the tainted beef, they would have been held liable had they not used every means at their disposal to contact the purchasers.

read the fine print

[six11]

When you sign up for one of those things, there's always fine print saying what they can and can't do regarding your information. This isn't rocket science--rtfm and your questions will be answered. Safeway (to pick the grocery store that I tend to go to) states:

Safeway may use this information to give you personally-tailored coupons, offers or other information

And then further down, they essentially say that at any point they can amend the terms of the agreement at will:

We reserve the right at our discretion to change, modify, add, or remove portions of this Statement at any time.

In any event, they make it clear that they will contact you for whatever reason they see fit. I'm a little bit confused as to why anybody would feel that a grocery card entitles you to privacy, when you voluntarily agree to give them your information even while they state that they will essentially do whatever they please with it. If you aren't comfortable with Grocery X tracking your purchasing habits, do what everybody else on the planet does--provide incorrect information and forget about it. Not everything is a constitutional issue.

Re:is it invasion?

[Frymaster]

I'd be pissed at the situation, but this is something that'd save my life.

i'd be pissed that the supermarket didn't bother to do some basic research on the whole bse thang.

it's all in the fda faq on bse. especially these gems:

all the organs in which infectious prions occur were removed at slaughter and did not enter the food supply. Muscle meat is not a source of infectious prions....None of this material left the control of the companies and entered commercial distribution.

you know how many cases of bse have been identified in humans? 155. worldwide. you know how many of those were in the united states? one. and you know how that woman got vcjd (human bse)? by eating organ meat... in britain.

we'd save more lives if the ama decided to call everyone on their membership list to tell them not to drive.

can you believe that me, the raging vegan, is saying this? what's this world coming to...