Stores Use Discount Cards To Notify Of Recall 404
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?"
Absolutely they did the right thing (Score:5, Informative)
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.
Re:violation of privacy (Score:2, Informative)
read the fine print (Score:4, Informative)
Re:is it invasion? (Score:5, Informative)
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 [fda.gov] 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...
Protest website (Score:2, Informative)
The most impressive site I've seen about this stuff is
Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering [nocards.org]
They've been tracking all manner of invasive (and, unfortunately, pervasive) supermarket marketing techniques for quite a while now.
No force, and real names are usually optional (Score:3, Informative)
I've also gotten cards as "Illegible scrawl" at some stores, depending on their procedures for trading the card for the paper.
Re:go to Food Lion (Score:3, Informative)
Hmmm. Randall's, Albertson's, and Kroeger's are all the same company. In fact, in that string of grocery stores in the article they listed of companies that said it violated privacy, they are all the same company. :)
When I was in Texas at a Kroeger's, my wife and I went and got a card to get a quick discount, filled it out with fake information. Then the cashier, who just happened to be the assistant manager, chuckled when I told him I had a Safeway's, Albertson's, and Randall's card in my wallet. He said I could've used any of them, they're all owned by the same people. :)
WRONG (Score:1, Informative)
Most certainly wrong. The prions has been injected into cattle, that then latter develop BSE. Likewise, the same of scrappies for sheep, and CWD for Elk/Deer. If you think that this is total crap, You are welcome to self inoculate yourself with any of the above or better yet, try CJD.
Personally, I do think that it would be useful to cross inoculate from CWD+ deer/elk to cattle and see what happens. That may have implications for transmission to humans. Here in the US, CWD is spreading and W denied funds to Colorado to do further studying of it (he is burying his head in the sand the same way that reagan did over aids).