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Web Coupons Tell Stores More Than You Realize
Hugh Pickens writes "The NY Times reports that a new breed of coupon, printed from the Internet or sent to mobile phones, look standard, but their bar codes can be loaded with a startling amount of data, including identification about the customer, Internet address, Facebook page information, and even the search terms the customer used to find the coupon in the first place. The coupons can, in some cases, be tracked not just to an anonymous shopper but to an identifiable person: a retailer could know that Amy Smith printed a 15-percent-off coupon after searching for appliance discounts at Ebates.com on Friday at 1:30 pm and redeemed it later that afternoon at the store. Using coupons also lets the retailers get around Google hurdles. Google allows its search advertisers to see reports on which keywords are working well as a whole but not on how each person is responding to each slogan. That alarms some privacy advocates. Companies can 'offer you, perhaps, less desirable products than they offer me, or offer you the same product as they offer me but at a higher price,' said Ed Mierzwinski, consumer program director for the United States Public Interest Research Group, which has asked the Federal Trade Commission for tighter rules on online advertising. 'There really have been no rules set up for this ecosystem.'"
The difference is that the store loyalty card gives a fixed rate based on whether or not you pay the fee, and you have to opt-in to be tracked, and the information provided is much less. In theory such a system as this could be tweaked so that everyone ends up paying the maximum amount the store's algorithm thinks they're willing to pay.
I too am worried about my privacy, so I avoid coupons. In fact, I avoid buying anything myself. I anonymously hire people to buy everything for me, including groceries. They always pay cash, and wear different clothing each time. And if they ever get an odd look from the cashier or other suspect behavior, I have instructed them to immediately exit the store without purchasing anything. So far, I have maximum privacy. Another thing, I always make sure to post as anonymous coward.
We do this with our customer loyalty program at our hardware store. Different customers get different offers. If you spend often but only with coupons and are generating lower profit then we'll send you a $5 of $30 offer. Someone who is very profitable when they come in will get a $5 off $25 or maybe $10 off $40 if they are a very good customer (profit wise). If someone is very low profit and a PITA (pain in the arm) then we will flag them and not mail them any coupons. The coupons have bar codes so we track redemptions, basket size, lifetime customer value, and other metrics.
"We make our world significant by the courage of our questions and by the depth of our answers." Carl Sagan
new breed of coupon, printed from the Internet or sent to mobile phones, look standard, but their bar codes can be loaded with a startling amount of data, including identification about the customer, Internet address, Facebook page information, and even the search terms the customer used to find the coupon in the first place.
New? Really?
I just got out of advertising (hopefully for the last time) after a total of 6 of the past 11 years spent cutting tracking code.
The first time I wrote code to track brick and mortar coupons to the individual online origin was in 1999. Every online coupon you print has been doing this for many years. Every high tech advertising company in the business makes its pitch in part by having (or at least claiming to have) the most accurate and precise tracking. If you can think of a way that, theoretically, they might be tracking you; they almost certainly are. It is a massive portion of the value proposition behind advertising; learning which advertising works so you can maximize campaign efficiency. The companies that don't do this, and do it well, go out of business quickly.
The most surprising bit here is that the NY Times is just finding out. Perhaps they have their own in-house ad company? Or they don't run coupons online?
All that said, I'm happy to see this get some publicity. It stuns me how much people think they're not being watched on every single page they visit.
Stop-Prism.org: Opt Out of Surveillance