Banks Find Way To Sell Consumers' Shopping Data 195
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.'"
Re:What is "user data"? (Score:1, Interesting)
I am my thoughts. If they exist in her, Buffy contains everything that is me and she becomes me. I cease to exist. No one else exists either. Buffy is all of us. We think. Therefore she is.
A Technicality: (Score:3, Interesting)
So, I send a bank a deal aimed at consumers who (for example) bought alcohol and restrict the geography to an overwhelmingly Mormon neighborhood and get back a list of names. I cross reference those with church memberships. I now can target the backsliders.
I have somehow magically not violated anyones privacy.
Chase Bank (Score:5, Interesting)