Banks Find Way To Sell Consumers' Shopping Data

nonprofiteer writes "Banks plan to compete with Groupon and LivingSocial by targeting coupons and deals at credit card holders based on their shopping habits. They found a way to do it without violating financial privacy laws: 'They're "selling" shopping habits the same way Facebook "sells" personal data about its users: in-network. It's a clever privacy work-around. Just as Facebook allows advertisers to specifically target certain kinds of users based on their profile information (without actually providing that profile information to the advertisers), banks plan to allow advertisers to send deals and coupons to their customers based on what they've bought before. That way, no user data actually leaves the network — instead, deals just enter the network. Each time a customer cashes in on one of those deals, the bank gets a commission.'"

What's the difference?

[blair1q]

Marketer: What did blair1q buy last week?
Bank: I would be breaking the law to tell you that.
Marketer: Did blair1q buy a toilet brush last week?
Bank: I would be breaking the law to tell you that.
Marketer: If I were to send an email to blair1q asking him to buy my toilet brush, and cut you in if he does, would that be worth anything to you?
Bank: No.
Marketer: What if it was a turnip peeler?
Bank: Put the coin in the slot, please.

Rubbing your pencil over the pad to mark it with lead and expose the un-marked indentations that were left by writing on the previous sheet is about 150 years old as an intelligence-gathering trick.