Slashdot Mirror
Supermarket Loyalty Cards Vs National ID Cards
john.wingfield writes "The BBC is running a story on a speech David Blunkett, the British Home Secretary, has given on ID cards and supermarket loyalty cards. He criticises the data protection arrangements for the loyalty cards whilst simultaneously (hypocritically?) promoting his own national ID card scheme, which is exempt from the Data Protection Act 1998. See also the UK Information Commissioner's (data protection and freedom of information watchdog) concerns about the ID card scheme."
The cards were not a panacea for everything but could help stop terrorists using multiple identities Because everyone KNOWS that terrorists can't fake ID cards! Hell, that's probably why GB is the terrorist haven that it is now, because they don't have a national ID card!
Geez, I thought that only America had to deal with this kind of insane rationalization. And no, I don't have and never will have a "loyalty" (i.e. "We want to track you") card.
There once was a man called Blunkett.
Loyalty Programs? He tried to debunk it.
But his views on privacy
Were pure hypocrisy,
So Britons everywhere said "Man, you flunk it!"
--------
Bleah! Heh heh heh... BLEAH BLEAH!!! Ha ha ha ha...
I avoid those grocery store cards. I will go out of my way to find the stores that don't use them. Luckily the little mom&pop store down the street doesn't use them, so that's where I usually go.
Guess what? While their small size means their selection is limited, the overall prices are about the same as the larger stores that use the nasty little cards.
Even if the prices were higher, I'd still go there. Everyone in the store knows the location of every item. Can't find something? Ask the next kid in an apron, and they'll take you right to it.
sigs, as if you care.
If anyone thinks that just by not having a supermarket loyalty card they have more privacy, they are kidding themselves. If someone wants to know that on Friday I buy women's underwear and what size I prefer they are welcome to the information....as long as I get a free iPod
President ISES
(International Society for Elimination of Sigs)
I'll bet slashdot is about the only place where us Supermarket Refuseniks are in the majority. I won't use one (even one with fake info) and I won't buy a single item that requires the card to get the real price.
When the cashier asks if I have a $NAME_OF_STORE Card, I answer with a strong, cheerful "Nope!" and it's been years since anybody pressed the issue any further. I assume based on their reactions that they get a fair number of customers declining (and probably with varying levels of politeness), yet I don't ever notice another customer not handing over their keychain for verification of eligibility to pay only full retail.
It's an odd thing... all these millions (are they into the billions yet?) of dollars spent to administer these programs, and I've yet to hear a single believable* justification for it.
* 'because we want to save you money!' is NOT believable. If that was their goal, they'd lower the prices and be done with it.
Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam possit materiari?
::chuckles::
::evil laugh::
I didnt click it, I sent to a friend of mine to see what it was when I didnt recognize the link, reaction was priceless.
--Anubis
"goodbye and hello, as always" ~Prince Corwin, from Zelazny's Amber series
Now this may sound a little paranoid (I know I'll be modded down just for saying the phrase above), but "worst case scenario" for you. [Tinfoil Hat Mode ON] It's only a matter of a couple of years until RFID-embedded national ID cards are a mandatory item one has to carry both in the UK and the US. The number of readers (both public, private and secret) will multiply at a geometric rate, with databases tracking more and more of our movements. And now that Texas school-children are being tracked under the guise of protection from kidnapping, how long before the same excuse is used to implant tags into every infant born at a major hospital. With further advances I am sure tags and readers will soon be developed that will allow detection and reading of the tags at several feet or even several meters. [Tinfoil Hat Mode OFF] Ok, so most of what I wrote is nonsense. But for how long? I wrote the worst case scenario because I believe that while we still have rights, we, as citizens should be on the lookout for these developments, so that the crap above does not come true.
Australia's next.
Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
as for the supermarket loyalty cards, they give the card, no one says you have to give them your address, they call me Mr Goatse at one store, one clerk figured it out and started laughing at my name. You can easily grab a handful of them, use one for every day of the week.
"Do you have a Kiroger card?"
'Nope'
"well...here's the card and the application" She swiped it, and gave me the blank app, to be filled out later.
The card works, and I just shredded the application.
So..just take the blank application, and say "I'll fill it out later".
I've been known from time to time to swap grocery store cards with friends, or else to give phony name and address information when obtaining one. The result is that I get discounts without totally giving up privacy, and the supermarket gets reliable data about a real person's short term shopping habits. The one thing the store loses is the ability to correctly map the shopping habits to a particular person. (You must pay with cash, of course, to make that work.)
I very much doubt that any country that institutes a national ID card system would let citizens swap cards.
Get to checkout, fumble briefly in your pockets, claim you have left your supermarket card at home by accident. Oh, that's fine, they'll say, and usually they'll just punch in a number and give you a discount anyway. Worst case scenario you still get to buy your groceries, you just have to pay a half a pound more. The horror.
Claim you lost your national ID card. Oh, sorry, you can't get on the plane.
Go and sign up for a supermarket card, or two or three, with false identity information. Claim you don't have a driver's license, or offer some flimsy piece of cardboard you printed up at home. There will be no negative repercussions for you in any way, at absolute worst one of these cards will get negated.
Go and sign up for a national ID card, or two or three, with false identity information. You have just committed a crime with a multi-year jail penalty.
Can you see why I might be more comfortable with the supermarket card than the government ID card?
tho now they want to mail the things to you.
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
As opposed to national ID cards, loyalty card are optional. Sure you could say national ID cards are optional (you can move out of the country) but it is different. There is a much higher transaction cost in changing countries compared to changing supermarkets.
"brxref
The rhythm is off, but the rhyme is true, so the reader is left hanging. M yattempt to fix:
The once was a man named Blunkett
Privacy? Tried to debunk it.
But his guv'ment's card
Hit privacy hard
Hypocrisy test? He flunked it!
That was godwaful. See why I'm going to major in math?
Maybe coming from a country where ID cards (and having them with you) have been mandatory since I've been born has made me blid, but what exactly are people's concerns about them? As far as I remember, my privacy has never been threatened by them - I show it to the police to prove who I am, sometimes also to the post office when I collect a parcel. So they believe I'm actually the person who is registered as the owner of the car I'm driving or the recipient of the parcel I'm trying to collect - thank you, I'd expect them to check that. Having lived in the UK for a few years, I couldn't help but get the impression that the point in this discussion is that "I have the right to hide who I am from anyone" - I just don't see that as a legitimate concern. The government and its agencies are not a privately owned supermarket who doesn't need to know who I am to accept me as a customer...
Perhaps the Government ID cards will match nicely with the government's 2.5 million video survelliance cameras.
Of course, if these sorts of measures really worked, there wouldn't be a lunatic sucessfully breaking into Buckingham palace every six months or so.
Si tacuisses philosophus mansisses. If you had kept quiet, you would have remained a philosopher.
Your grocery discount card is only safe in the right hands! Just imagine what they'd do if they found your National ID card.
I reluctantly applied for one a few years ago, since the discounts meant I'd save over $100/year. In reality, I was off by a factor of two, saving close to $200/yr. off of the store's artificially inflated prices.
There are actually two types of discount cards: the first requires a real name and address and proof of identity. This one affords the user check cashing privileges. Since I do my banking business at an actual bank, I opted for the second, which doesn't require a real identity. Being a properly paranoid Slashbot who doesn't want The Powers That Be to track my aluminum foil purchasing habits (for the hats, you see), I gave my name as John Doe, 1234 Main St., Anytown, USA.
I'd been using the card for over five years before I realized that the cashier sees your name come up on her terminal when you use the card. About a month ago, the cashier asked me if my name was really "John Doe".
"Yeah, and it's a real bitch when I check into a hotel," I replied.
About a year after I got the card, the supermarket (Stop and Shop in Massachusetts) launched a web site that integrated your purchasing data. You'd log in by entering the serial number on the card and get a history of your purchases and discounts, along with "healthy" alternatives (which was pretty brain dead, offering mayonnaise as a "healthy" alternative to mustard).
The beauty part was that after you logged in you were presented with the option of password protecting your data. However, that meant that anyone who hadn't logged in had their purchase data unprotected (albeit with no identity attached). I tested this by entering numbers at random and viewing the purchase histories of random strangers ("Grape soda and rice cakes? What were you thinking?" "Oooh! KY Warming Jelly! Party on, dude!"). I was tempted to enter passwords for some of these but I didn't.
The store pulled the web site after a couple of weeks, citing "security concerns".
Gotta go. I have a craving for grape soda and rice cakes.
k.
"In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart." - Anne Frank
The number is checked against their database. At least for Safeway stores... But if you have a friend with a supermarket card just use their phone number (it's probably already in your mobile phone. uhhh.. ask your friend of course before running it.)
Heil Sig! -Rob
Is the pig cute?
KFG
The difference between a supermarket loyalty card and a National ID card is this.
You can lie about the info on the supermarket loyalty card, by putting a fake phone number, address, whatever, no big deal, and I don't think the supermarket will mind. I think the main purpose of those membership cards is so they know how much stuff someone buys, when, etc., etc., giving them the demographic info so they can better stock stuff and whatnot.
Right now we have State ID Cards (whether simply identification or drivers' licenses). Even if we did go to National ID Cards, they may not be any different. Let me say this. Under NO circumstances implant those RFID microchips. Cause there's too much fear over the issue of GPS tracking and such. By the way, I think we should just leave it up to the state level. Let us have an United States of American with each state creating their own laws and such, under our federal documents that have worked for us for so long.
I have a big family, and food is a major monthly bill. If I can save 100-200 dollars a month by using a store card, guess what, I will.
I'm one of those "Evil" customers, I value shop. I buy on sale, buy the 2 for 1 sales, and never by name brands, unless its in bulk. Costco gives you money back on the excutive account, more than the cost of the account, so its worth it to shop there for bulk items.
I was in a little discussion about shopping with a co-worker, after a few minutes here is what we he said about shopping and my answers.
* Shopping all over takes time.
I shop at 3 stores, Costco for most stuff, Safeway and the local corner market. The corner market always sell milk for 1.99 the local markets dont. Costco has 2 for 3.50, but longer lines, so during the week, the basics are the local stores and the quicky market.
I found our markets in best prices in prices as Costco, Safeway, Albertsons, QFC and Fred Myers tie. This is my local area, in other areas I noticed Albertsons and Fredmyers are cheaper. So it depends on where you live. The area is has lots of Safeway generic product producers, (Dairygold, etc), so icecream is cheaper.
Safeway comes out ahead with sales alone, but if you use the membershipcard you 10-20% if you shop right. 2 for 1 prices, and discount's are amazing.
* Brand names over generics
This is tricky, on sale items most are brand names. But normally, stuff like bagged cereal are much cheaper, and with a club card even less. 2 for 3.50, 16 ounce bags is better than a 24 ounce box for 4 bux. And if they have the 32 ounce bags for 3.99 thats even better.
Store brands are also very high quality, you buy store meat/milk/wheat/product products, why not store boxed goods?
I dont see the reason for people to give up 10-20% savings because they wont use a club card, and then complain about privacy then still rent videos at blockbuster, have multiple accounts with other merchants.
Would you give up 20% of your pay to feel secure, but not be secure? National ID's are like this, its just a false sense of security. The 9-11 terrorists had real ID's. They didnt fake a thing.
People ask me why I refuse to get one of these grocery store cards. I always first try to explain the privacy implications. That usually falls on deaf ears. However, I find that those ears open up when I tell them, "They aren't handing out those 'discount' cards because they LOSE money off of them." Thoughtful expressions ensue.
"Don't blame the log for the fire." --Andrew Ratshin
HEALTH INSURANCE AGENT: "Sorry Mr. Smith, but we see by your grocery store records that you buy lots of ice cream, cheese, and Twinkies. You are too great a risk. We are canceling your health insurance."
AUTO INSURANCE AGENT: "Sorry Mr. Smith, but we see by your grocery store records that you buy lots of beer and wine. You are too great a risk of being a drunk driver. We are canceling your auto insurance."
PROSECUTING ATTORNEY: "So, Mr. Smith, according to your grocery store records, you purchased a case of beer six hours before the car accident. Isn't it true you were driving while intoxicated?"
RENTAL CAR AGENT:
CREDIT BUREAU AGENT:
DRIVER'S LICENSE AGENT:
CURRENT EMPLOYER:
POTENTIAL EMPLOYER:
FBI AGENT:
RIAA AGENT:
And so it goes, and so it goes on...
"Don't blame the log for the fire." --Andrew Ratshin
at Cal Poly Pomona, we used to use the campus switch board number as the phone number for a card that one of us started. that way whoever you were, you'd just use that to get the discount (because sometimes it was nutty the discouts you get...$14, with your Ralph's card, only $7.99!).
I can see the guy compiling the stats:
"Wow, this guy drinks a lot"
JediLuke
-Do or Do Not, There is no Try
- Nearly half of the insurance brokers in the UK. Yep. No other country has it - verification of your lifestyle by insurers via your shopping habits.
- British Petroleum. So the insurers can derive information on how you really drive and how much, not what you submitted when applying.
- Major banks including Barkleys which in total hold 30-40% of the consumer account market.
- So on so fourth.
Basically, if you use it you line up all of your life in front of nearly all of the most disgusting marketing and data mining lowlife in the UK. 1984 and Blunkett ideas are pale by comparison.Baker's Law: Misery no longer loves company. Nowadays it insists on it
http://www.sigsegv.cx/
Your library gets ripped off $80 (which is about right) because you left their books out in the car, yet somehow it's an infringement of your rights to be required to pay for what you deprived them of before you'll be allowed to borrow more of their stuff? Libraries are underfunded as it is; why should they be forced to eat the cost of *you* choosing to leave their books in the car?
the big value to the stores are knowing what items are bought together and what the primary items are versus the secondary, ie. what you go to the store for (regular items) vs. what you happen to pick up there (irregular).
they pool all this information and while it may be interesting for them to have your actual name and address for correlational (sp?) purposes (think property records for example), it's far more valuable for them to know what items are sold together than anything else. (There was a Wal-Mart article on this a few days ago in the NYT)
As far as privacy, honestly, I don't get what the big deal is? Actually now that I think about it, I don't get what the big deal about any of the privacy is really. I understand search/seizure and such fun things, but I don't really understand supermarket check out privacy? Don't use the card. Don't use a credit card. Don't go to the store.
It seems to me people have an unrealistic expectation of privacy, like the article earlier about laws for cell phone cameras. If you go out in public dressed in such a way that you don't want to be photographed, then you should think about how you dress. In that case, I would say the problem is excessive modesty just as much as intrusion of privacy.
In the supermarket case, I would say don't use the card or don't go to the store. There are lots of mom and pop stores around. Oh but they're more expensive? Part of the reason the supermarkets can offer such cheap prices is that they are fine tuning their supply chain with active customer data. The closer they can match supply to demand, the more efficient they run, the less $ is wasted the the more savings they can pass on (which is 1/2 the point, the other 1/2 is increased profits, but hey, 1/2 is better than none).
In any event, the only person you really have to protect yourself from is the Corporation of the US/UK government as a supermarket isn't going to use your data to imprison you (at least not yet, there may come a day when all serial killers cards are seen buying copius amounts of spam, hot sauce and jaggermiester...).
Until they, take the savings or do what my old roommates and I do. 9 of us still all use the same card... as a phone number... ensuring the safeway computer is seeing both genders buying products across the board from cheap store brand to expensive organics across four states... if they're coders worth his weight in salt, there has to be some kind of a proximity filter... only three of us live within three blocks.
Ha safeway... all your savings are belong to us; in soviet russia, safeway card discounts you; and I for one welcome our new confusing food store shopper overlords.
I r00t3d the frozen food section and i p0wnz all the waffles; where's your firewall now bitch?
nuckcl@yahoo.com
Whenever I go grocery shopping at Genuardi's or Acme, when I get to the checkout and the clerk asks if I have my super-fantastic discount card, I pat my pockets, give my wallet a cursory once over, and check my key ring, then shrug sheepishly and tell them I must've left it at home. At this point the clerk just runs her own. Granted, I go to the lines with the cutest chicks and say it with a great deal of charm...
Founder, Americans Allied Against Alliteration
So your Kroger card doesn't have your name associated with it. Big deal! You're still the one swiping it every time you buy groceries, so they can still track your buying patterns. For Kroger, the net effect is the same as if you had a "non-blank" card.
Why is it that everybody thinks the most evil thing about loyalty cards is that they can match your buying habits with your name? You think they really CARE what your name is?
Breakfast served all day!
If you do some investigating you find that in many cases, the card isn't saving you money, it's just keeping you from getting ripped off. What's the difference you ask?
Ok well if a store has too much of something in inventory and needs to get rid of it, or if they want to offer a loss leader (an item they sell at a loss to entice you to come in and buy stuff), but only to card members, that's you saving money. They are offering a discount over what the normal price is for an item.
However if they take an item that they get plenty of sales on, jack the price and then offer the old price as the card member price, then you are just not getting ripped off. They don't need to charge the higher price normally, they just jack it up to make you feel like you are getting a discount.
Many items fall in this cateogry. Where I often shop, meat is ALWAYS on sale with the discount card. Always. Well look, I know how it goes with meat sales. They do a lot of it, it's fairly predictable, and they prep it fresh in the deli every day. They are not alwys overstocked on meat, and the price is not low enough to be a loss leader.
That's the problem people have with these. When Albertsons switched to a card, I didn't notice things get cheaper on a whole. Seems like the regular prices just slid up over time and the "discount" prices.
This is why people hate them. If they really did nothing but offer lower than normal prices, I'd say good for them. However it's usually just a scam to make you feel like you are saving money.
The problem with the proposed ID card is that it will be a smart card, with biometric information on it, as well as other information about me. About the only person who *won't* have access to that information is *me*. I'm not entirely happy about that.
He criticises the data protection arrangements for the loyalty cards whilst simultaneously (hypocritically?) promoting his own national ID card scheme, which is exempt from the Data Protection Act 1998.
I mean, you'd have to be blind not to see that wouldn't you?
What are you listening to? (http://megamanic.blogetery.com/)
"it is important that we do not pretend that an entitlement card would be an overwhelming factor in combating international terrorism" - David Blunkett 3 July 2002.
-- MartinG To mail me: echo kewyjlcxyzvjfxbqwh | tr bcefhjklqvwxyz
'Blind Man' Blunkett comes from the authoritarian school of do as I say not do as I do. Hence his cards are far better than any (optional) loyalty card. Even if you point out to him that you can get loyalty cards in Holland for buying dope (buy 9 bags, get one free) - which seems a far better use of id cards than Blunkett has in mind, he'll still tell you, "You are wrong, that is illegal, do as I say."
I would have no objection to using ID cards if the privacy laws in the UK were as strong as in, say, Germany. It would have made the nightmare of opening a UK bank account disappear. As it is, I had to provide proof of a paid utility bill (in my name), which required getting an apartment which required references and (usually) proof of a bank account...
But with BMB cracking the whip, you can be absolutely certain that national ID cards will be used to track far more than just proof of identity. The UK is the most secretive country in the Western world. Be afraid if this proposal (for which you pay 5 times as much as in Germany, Switzerland etc.) happens. Be very afraid.
Did he inhale?
Mr Blunkett said the ID card plan added little costs to what was already being done in creating a database for passports holding biometric details such as iris scans and fingerprints.
Such a database would prevent people travelling to America having to pay $100 on every visit for a biometric visa, he suggested.
So... Blunkett's argument for introducing a national ID card which drastically improves the government's tools for invading the privacy of its citizens is that it will save you money when visiting the U.S.A. - a country that is already in the process of invading its citizens' privacy far more effectively than Blunkett's little scheme would.
What that boils down to is "Give up most of your privacy, so you can go visit a country which demands that you give up all of your privacy."
I've got a better idea: forget the ID cards, and forget visiting the U.S.A. - go someplace sane and free, instead.
- Peter Ravn Rasmussen
You've never bought beer in England, have you? It's ever so easy to get it with no ID, as long as you look more than about 14. Any we don't have to carry a driver's licence when driving, either. Oh, and there is no "customs" to pass through in Europe. And most other European counties have dropped the passport checks too.
Store cards are subject to the Data Protection Act; Blunkettcards will run a coach and horses through the protection - so much so they'll probably have to amend the DPA (and not in our favour).
Apart from being card-shaped and having my name on them there is nothing in common between the two. Blinky is now trying the soft-sell; after scaring us silly with the threat that unless we have ID cards we'll all be blown up by terrorists; he's now trying the line that they aren't so very different from the cards we have in our wallet. When they are.
And expect copious repetitions of 'those who have nothing to hide have nothing to fear.', which as any five-year old can tell you is disproved by 'doesn't that rather depend on who's asking the questions?'
This is all going to be rammed through Parliament in time for a May General Election (which is only needed so they can get it out of the way before announcing tax increases). The government will call for all parties to come together to fight the menace of [insert suitable scare here].
Any party who objects to ID cards, or tries to drag it out in committee will be called 'soft on crime'. Which is the last thing they want before an election now that the tabloids and the Home Secretary have made everyone petrified of a largely imaginary crime wave.
Meanwhile the government will be whipping its own backbenchers and telling them 'don't rock the boat - remember there's a historic third term up for grabs'. They'll get it through the Commons on a massive majority and then bully the Lords into compliance.
If the Lords object, well last night showed that the government will use the Parliament Act 1949 for pretty much any purpose.
The only way to stop this madness (apart from hoping the same people who programmed the Child Support Agency computers are doing ID cards) is for people in Labour constituencies to contact their MP and say that their vote is conditional on the MP opposing the ID card legislation.
Best wishes,
Mike.
This is what I do. They think I am Paul R*, a coworker. He was bitching about the card system, and tracking, so I said "so, lets swap cards. That way they'll think you are me, and Im you."
:)
Funny though, I had previously swapped cards.
Now Paul is a woman.
no
(apart from hoping the same people who programmed the Child Support Agency computers are doing ID cards)
I think the government has proven time and time again that it simply cannot do large computer systems. Or even small computer systems.
Child support agency: failed.
Passport agency: failed
National Health Service: failed
Firearms register (A pitifully small database in this country!): failed
Given the history of failure of large and small computer systems commisioned by the government, I have every expectation that they will be completely unable to build the National Identity Register (NIR) for ID cards.
A latent existence
I probably read this on Slashdot, or somewhere else, but it's funny to watch the public get in an uproar over privacy.
John Q: This is an outrage, I demand my right to privacy!
Pitch: Sir would you like to win a free toaster?
John Q: Wow! free toaster, where do I sign up?
As long as we are comfortable with the fact that if somebody in the right office wants to pull up our file, they can know EVERYTHING about us on a whim. --This does not just include what we do and when we do it, but all the clever things which can be learned from that data. --Psyche profiles and all the most likely reactions a person will have to any given stimulus at any given time. --Or if the person is the sort who is likely to resist the control system by using one card among nine different people.
It's about fear and control. 'They' are scared of losing control, and so always seek more and more. 'They' want people neatly labeled in their individual boxes, doing exactly what they want us to be doing.
If we never find being labeled or being put in boxes offensive, then we are probably never going to be considered a threat, which should make life easy. --Except it doesn't work that way. Once we have been put in boxes, how do they know we will stay there? What if we wake up one day and decide that we don't like our boxes? This is a fearful thought, which makes the controllers want to apply even more control. The target and memories of what was once normal are always in motion. Fear is never satisfied; when one is pre-disposed to fearing being on the 'wrong' side of the line, then it no longer matters how far the line is moved, the line itself remains and there is always a 'wrong' side which drives the desire for even more control.
'Living' for the average human has become increasingly doing only pre-approved things, thinking only pre-approved thoughts, and generally staying within the pre-set boundaries created by our masters. The world isn't the way it is through random chance. --Just because we were born into slavery doesn't make it natural or okay. There is so much more out there! --But ignorance is bliss. Amazingly, most people are content to flush away all their health and youth into stupid jobs, working too many hours a day, calling 'entertainment' the mind-numbing pap which is most film, television and popular video games.
--And when management decides it's time for us to lose our jobs and seek out of default and desperation positions with the military (carrying rifles through the desert), most of us think, "Oh well. I guess that's just how it is". We unwittingly participate in hundreds of social engineering stress-tests delivered via media, food, medicines and artificially generated sickness. --Much of the misery in our lives has been artificially generated for one reason or another.
Among those who know, there is a subject which is called, "The Topic of Topics". or "The Predator". There are those who 'eat' human misery, who don't want us to look at the UFO's. --There is such thing as spiritual energy, and like any energy, it can bled off and used to feed other things. But these are not thoughts cattle are supposed to have. So we must stay in our boxes, watch our televisions and not talk too much.
How much personal debt do people currently have? How often do they get sick? How much do we really think for ourselves? When was the last time anybody was in a satisfying relationship? How much of You is really You?
For control measures and artificial stimuli to be administered, the system also requires numerous methods of monitoring and gathering information during and after the fact. Information cards which people willingly carry around are just one small, small facet of the whole system. --And I suspect that on the most important levels, these particular facets are more about molding perceptions and training certain thought patterns than they are about actually watching people. About making people think, "What's the big deal about privacy anyway?"
-FL
As long as we are comfortable with the fact that if somebody in the right office wants to pull up our file, they can know EVERYTHING about us on a whim. --This does not just include what we do and when we do it, but all the clever things which can be learned from that data. --Psyche profiles and all the most likely reactions a person will have to any given stimulus at any given time. --Or if the person is the sort who is likely to resist the control system by using one card among nine different people.
It's about fear and control. 'They' are scared of losing control, and so always seek more and more. 'They' want people neatly labeled in their individual boxes, doing exactly what they want us to be doing.
If we never find being labeled or being put in boxes offensive, then we are probably never going to be considered a threat, which should make life easy. --Except it doesn't work that way. Once we have been put in boxes, how do they know we will stay there? What if we wake up one day and decide that we don't like our boxes? This is a fearful thought, which makes the controllers want to apply even more control. The target and memories of what was once normal are always in motion.
The more a person uses a certain set of thoughts and behavior templates, the more 'burned in' the synaptic pathways become. This is how the brain works, and this is how habits are formed. Fear is habitual, and thus cannot ever be satisfied; when one is pre-disposed to fearing being on the 'wrong' side of the line, then it does not matter how far the line is moved, the line itself remains and there is always a 'wrong' side. This drives the desire for ever increasing amounts of control.
'Living' for the average human has become increasingly doing only pre-approved things, thinking only pre-approved thoughts, and generally staying within the pre-set boundaries created by our masters. The world isn't the way it is through random chance. --Just because we were born into slavery doesn't make it natural or okay. There is so much more out there! --But ignorance is bliss. Amazingly, most people are content to flush away all their health and youth and energy into stupid jobs, working too many hours a day, calling 'entertainment' the mind-numbing pap which is most film, television and popular distraction.
--And when management decides it's time for us to lose our jobs and seek out of default and desperation positions with the military (carrying rifles through the desert), most of us think, "Oh well. I guess that's just how it is". We unwittingly participate in hundreds of social engineering stress-tests delivered via media, food, medicines and artificially generated sickness and artificially generated war. --Indeed, much of the misery in our lives has been deliberately fabricated.
Among those who know, there is a subject which is called, "The Topic of Topics", or "The Predator". There are those who 'eat' human misery, who don't want us to look at the UFO's. --There is such thing as spiritual energy, and like any energy, it can bled off and used to feed other things. But these are not thoughts cattle are supposed to have. So we must stay in our boxes, watch our televisions and not talk too much.
How much personal debt do people currently have? How often do they get sick? How much do we really think for ourselves? When was the last time anybody was in a satisfying relationship? How much of You is really You and not some behavioral subroutine we saw on 'Friends' or 'Survivor'?
For control measures and artificial stimuli to be administered, the system also requires numerous methods of monitoring and gatheri
Al this concern over customer loyalty cards, and what do you do? You pay with a credit card! If you value your identity, NEVER use a credit card. Credit cards betray you much more than any loyalty card will. They get your name, etc. They can then tie this in with information from returns or rebates, or warrenty exchanges.
Rule #1: You can only bitch if you only ever pay cash.
Rule #2: Use loyalty cards. The stores are out to get you to spend more. Indirectly, they make themselves more helpful to you by tracking consumer trends. This HELPS YOU.
Rule #3: (If you are so paranoid) Use a fake name and address (but keep it local) Use a made-up address on your street, with a made up name. But keep it in the same zip! They really don't verify the names or addresses. They just want local stats.
Slashdot's rate-of-post filter: Preventing you from posting too many great ideas at once.