Forget Milk and Eggs: Supermarkets Are Having a Fire Sale on Data About You (themarkup.org) 104
When you use supermarket discount cards, you are sharing much more than what is in your cart. From a report: When you hit the checkout line at your local supermarket and give the cashier your phone number or loyalty card, you are handing over a valuable treasure trove of data that may not be limited to the items in your shopping cart. Many grocers systematically infer information about you from your purchases and "enrich" the personal information you provide with additional data from third-party brokers, potentially including your race, ethnicity, age, finances, employment, and online activities.
Some of them even track your precise movements in stores. They then analyze all this data about you and sell it to consumer brands eager to use it to precisely target you with advertising and otherwise improve their sales efforts. Leveraging customer data this way has become a crucial growth area for top supermarket chain Kroger and other retailers over the past few years, offering much higher margins than milk and eggs. And Kroger may be about to get millions of households bigger. In October 2022, Kroger and another top supermarket chain, Albertsons, announced plans for a $24.6 billion merger that would combine the top two supermarket chains in the U.S., creating stiff competition for Walmart, the overall top seller of groceries.
U.S. regulators and members of Congress are scrutinizing the deal, including by examining its potential to erode privacy: Kroger has carefully grown two "alternative profit business" units that monetize customer information, expected by Kroger to yield more than $1 billion in "profits opportunity." Folding Albertsons into Kroger will potentially add tens of millions of additional households to this data pool, netting half the households in America as customers. While Kroger is certainly not the only large retailer collecting and monetizing shopper data through the use of loyalty programs, the company's evolution from a traditional grocery business to a digitally sophisticated retailer with its own data science unit sets it apart from its larger competitors like Walmart, which also collects, analyzes and monetizes shopper data for brands and for targeted advertising on its own retail ad network.
Some of them even track your precise movements in stores. They then analyze all this data about you and sell it to consumer brands eager to use it to precisely target you with advertising and otherwise improve their sales efforts. Leveraging customer data this way has become a crucial growth area for top supermarket chain Kroger and other retailers over the past few years, offering much higher margins than milk and eggs. And Kroger may be about to get millions of households bigger. In October 2022, Kroger and another top supermarket chain, Albertsons, announced plans for a $24.6 billion merger that would combine the top two supermarket chains in the U.S., creating stiff competition for Walmart, the overall top seller of groceries.
U.S. regulators and members of Congress are scrutinizing the deal, including by examining its potential to erode privacy: Kroger has carefully grown two "alternative profit business" units that monetize customer information, expected by Kroger to yield more than $1 billion in "profits opportunity." Folding Albertsons into Kroger will potentially add tens of millions of additional households to this data pool, netting half the households in America as customers. While Kroger is certainly not the only large retailer collecting and monetizing shopper data through the use of loyalty programs, the company's evolution from a traditional grocery business to a digitally sophisticated retailer with its own data science unit sets it apart from its larger competitors like Walmart, which also collects, analyzes and monetizes shopper data for brands and for targeted advertising on its own retail ad network.
Give them something to analyze (Score:5, Funny)
Go and buy a pack of condoms and some doggy treats.
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Hey, no kinkshaming!
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Go and buy a pack of condoms and some doggy treats.
Some days you really do need bearing grease, a frozen turkey, and some scented candles, all in one shopping trip. That's why there's Walmart.
Re: Give them something to analyze (Score:2)
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I used the mayor's number, but I like your idea, too.
Who doesn't know this (Score:4, Interesting)
I was a mere child in the 80's - 90's when our local supermarket started the discount card program and even then myself and my parent's knew they were doing to track what people were buying. It's obvious on it's face. This one is an old school data collection scheme, one of the OG systems.
Of course this is kinda how it's supposed to be in a fucked up sortof way? You can opt out of it pretty easily, just don't use the card and pay cash. If you want those sweet sweet deals then tht's kinda the tradeoff (or get old school clipping). Or shop at a store that doesn't have a discount card program (Publix and Aldi don't to my knowledge)
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I was recently visiting parents and did see they had those cards at Krogers.
But where else do they actually have these?
The only store around here that I've seen use them is Walgreens....
And..does anyone play the game I used to play with them when I would sign up (multiple times)...put in goofy names to fsck with their databases?
I figure some of them HAD to be puzzled at the buying habits of a 90 year old Swedish woma
Re: Who doesn't know this (Score:2)
I get a new card every time I come in. Not to fuck with their data collection, but just to be a vengeful asshole.
If they want to make me have some stupid card to get the price so prominently displayed in the shelf, I'll happily hold up the line while they issue me a new card with fake customer info....every fucking time I come in.
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If they want to make me have some stupid card to get the price so prominently displayed in the shelf, I'll happily hold up the line while they issue me a new card with fake customer info....every fucking time I come in.
Here's the thing that pisses me off about loyalty cards: they're a scam and a shell game, and the suckers are lining up to be fleeced. There's no such thing as a true discount in these scenarios - companies just jack up the price to make whatever profit they deem fit, then jack it up again to pay for the costs of administering the loyalty program.
Cardholders pay a price that, although it's "discounted", is higher than what they would have paid if no loyalty program existed. And people like me, who refuse to
Re: Who doesn't know this (Score:1)
But I don't care if they track everything I buy.
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But where else do they actually have these?
Winn-Dixie still does 'em, as do Walgreens and CVS. Usually if you don't have a loyalty card, they have one up at the register that they'll scan, so the privacy fears are generally a bit overblown.
Zuck already knows everything about you anyway, so the privacy ship has sailed a long time ago. Might as well just save a few bucks on today's ever-increasing grocery bills.
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Albertson's when it was around did them. Up in the northeast pretty sure Shoprite and Stop n' Shop have them. Back in "the day" when I worked at A&P and Waldbaums they both had them. By their very nature all the membership stores like Costco, Sam's Club and BJ's have them (it's baked into the system!)
It was all the rage for supermarkets for a couple decades at least, I would say it's more recent development that a place does not have them.
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Well, I'm not on any social media...that helps.
I constantly fill things out with joke names, etc.
And Katrina erased a LOT of my trail for years and years....it was amazing all junk snail mail stopped for well over a decade.
Re: Who doesn't know this (Score:2)
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There is no activation process for the cards, not really they just a bunch of unqiue ids. They make associations as they get.
You don't need even screw with them if you want an 'anonymous card' walk up the customer service counter, ask them for a shopper card, they will scan it and give it to you. When they start asking for you name, address etc, just politely say "you know what i am in a hurry will have to finish this another time" walk away.
The card will work fine. They will still build the profile data a
Re: Who doesn't know this (Score:2)
Common in northeast US at Giant, Stop&Shop, Shaw's, BJ's, and Costco. There's are multiple benefits to having a membership card at Stop&Shop - you can scan your card when you walk in and use their hand scanner to scan items as you put them in your cart, making checkout 30 seconds. You can load coupons on your card and use paper coupons. Plus there are standard deals for members, and you get gas points for every purchase. Of course I'd love all those benefits without giving them my data, but I don't
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Well...Costco, is a different beast...much like Sam's Club.
That's a membership card to the whole store, and I will admit, on of my favorite stores in the world to shop.
I use it mostly as a grocery store....I love to cook and buy in bulk. Great meat selection...I like to buy whole Prime grade NY strip roasts or rib roasts...and cut into my own steaks and freeze.
It's so easy to drop money there....even if you don't hit the alcohol s
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"I figure some of them HAD to be puzzled at the buying habits of a 90 year old Swedish woman named Carlos Weinstein."
Not really, it is just a bot that analyzes the data.
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A common hack to get the discounts associated with the loyalty card without being tracked is to use 'your' phone number as an alternate ID. You'll find that in many cases someone has already registered: (your area code) 867-5309. (It works in several stores in my area)
Very easy to remember for those of us of a certain age.
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Brilliant!!
Thank you, I'm gonna have to steal this idea if you don't mind!!
I've been using (area code) 555-1212 all this time.....
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> Yeah, but there produce is lower quality
Google around, plenty of independent blind testing has demonstrated it is often better than frozen for 6 months dross from the incumbents.
> and you have to pay for a shopping cart.
Which you get back when you return it to the stall. Or are you one of those lazy goitres who just ditches it wherever you feel?
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Or are you one of those lazy goitres who just ditches it wherever you feel?
Bless their heart, though. I nearly filled up the change cup (more accurately, a cigarette tray, but I don't smoke) in my old car with quarters from Aldi, by returning someone else's cart at almost every visit. There's that old saying "a penny lost is a penny found". Well, due to inflation, it's now a quarter.
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My hippy housemate fabricated a shim for just that reason, though here in Australia its a gold coin ($1 or $2) slot across all major food chains. Those three supermarket chains kept him in the beers for a good year or so!
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Yeah, but there produce is lower quality and you have to pay for a shopping cart.
Actually, every time I shop at Aldi I gain a quarter by using a cart someone abandoned, and then actually putting it back. Produce quality seems the same as every other store around here, so it probably depends on your local suppliers.
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just don't use the card and pay cash.
The second part, "pay cash", is the key. If you use your credit or debit card, you are tracked just as well as if you used the special card from your store. Depending on the store (like Walmart), you can track exactly what you bought and when.
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Nope - They get at least your first initial (but many issuers provide the entire first name) and the last four digits of the account. They still have you uniquely identified solidly enough they are going to easily be able to tie your records up with an external data partner and get the full info if they are even interested.
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The second part, "pay cash", is the key.
Nah, if you want real anonymity, you pay only in tumbled cryptocurrency. Sure, your shopping options might be a bit limited, but no sacrifice - no privacy! When you're sitting at home eating your Ramen noodles that you probably overpaid for from some creepy dude on Craigslist, you can take comfort in the fact that Kroger has absolutely no idea who you are.
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I ask them to swipe the store card and pay with cash. Failing that, 8675309 for the number usually works.
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It was best thing about Publix.
Now I just see who is running the Pepsi product BOGO and shop there for the next two weeks. Winn-Dixie has been winning on that front more and more often. Helps that they send flyers still.
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Do they now? They used to advertise specifically about not having any loyalty cards. Just a bit dissapointing if they've changed stances on that. I rarely shop there outside of the occasional sub because it's definitely more expensive than the other local options.
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I was a mere child in the 80's - 90's when our local supermarket started the discount card program and even then myself and my parent's knew they were doing to track what people were buying. It's obvious on it's face. This one is an old school data collection scheme, one of the OG systems.
Another OG data collection scheme was (is?) the warranty "registration" card. The vendor -- and it seems all did it -- didn't tell you the warranty was not contingent on registering.. but many people did send in the little card. Even as a child I read the questions and thought "WTF does Panasonic want to know how much money I make, what race I am, etc etc" -- it was all market research.
I've never once sent in a card.
I've never once had a "loyalty" card. And when offered, I decline. If it's CVS and they
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Publix
They donate rather heavily to the Republican Party, which was why the Parkland kids (who are now all actually adults, my how time flies) staged a protest inside the store. It's just worth mentioning in case that doesn't mesh with your political views and you have other options for grocery shopping.
While I like to say I'm personally avoiding Publix for reasons of practicing ethical capitalism, I mostly don't shop there because they're just damned overpriced on most goods and they do not price match. I like
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Yeah I don't shop at Publix often mainly because they have just become significantly more expensive than the other local options for not a ton of benefit. Aldi has way better prices, Winn Dixie is fine when I need a wider "supermarket style" selection and the local hispanic markets honestly fill a lot of the specialty needs.
I don't like Publix's politics, I do like the subs, the deli section is still better than the others and the fact that they do in fact pay and take care of their employees pretty decent
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Re: Who doesn't know this (Score:2)
Have fun with it. (Score:4, Insightful)
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paying with same CC every time easily ascribed to you, would have to pay cash
Not our local Market Basket chain (Score:2)
They have no loyalty card or similar means to identify individual customers. They could be tracking through credit card usage, but if you pay cash, they have no way to track you. (And their prices are actually the lowest of the 3 supermarkets in town, Hannaford and Shaws being the other two.)
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if you pay cash, they have no way to track you.
They fingerprinting cart contents like online companies do for fingerprinting browsers, so can identify us as unique shop visitors even if they don't know our name. Their classification algorithm could statistically identify me the shrimp_noodles--raspberry_soda--fruit_yoghurt customer.
They can infer customer age, family status, income range, hobby interests. Then they can measure their useful variables, e.g. sensitivity of certain classes of purchasers to an ad campaign.
They don't care much about the name.
Poison the well people (Score:4, Informative)
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Make Shut up - Congratulations that actually just gives them another data point unless you always pay cash.
The will pull the name information from the credit transaction. You are now marked as the tin-foil hat wearing type that puts fake information everywhere but they still have what is very likely you're real identity.
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Make Shut up - Congratulations that actually just gives them another data point unless you always pay cash.
The will pull the name information from the credit transaction. You are now marked as the tin-foil hat wearing type that puts fake information everywhere but they still have what is very likely you're real identity.
I'm not the OP, but I *do* pay cash. Where I live it's not uncommon for the merchant to charge about 1.5% for any transaction using a card. The banks are rich enough already without me giving them 1.5% of everything I spend. Strangely, I still see plenty of people paying by card (or tapping their watch). What cost of living crisis?
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The stores know some people lie on their card applications or otherwise try to evade the surveillance. They're looking for cards that have bogus information tied to them. They're still useful even without being tied to a real world identity, because they can still build up a profile of the person using the card. The moment you pay with a regular credit or debit card, though, they can tie that shopping profile to your financial information, and you are no longer pseudonymous.
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The price difference for being or not being 'in the shoppers club' can be as high as 30% for some items at Kroger-owned supermarkets (They own several chains).
That's a strong incentiviser for shoppers, and I can't imagine how Kroger makes THAT MUCH money off of your purchase information. I guess most people haven't heard of ad-blockers yet. . .
At Least You Received Some Benefit (Score:5, Insightful)
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The article goes to great lengths to show that make a lot of money collecting that info and not passing it along.
Google provides web services. Something that is a bitch to setup yourself. Possible, but it isn't easy.
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None of what these people are offering nor what Google is offering is worth the price.
At least with the supermarket the consumer gets to make the choice whether or not to sign up for a rewards card, and can decide for themselves whether the rewards are worth it.
Personally I've seen significant discounts at the till when providing a membership card. I don't give a shit if someone knows what I purchased, or where I walked in the store while I was shopping. That's my considered choice, and I happen to feel well-enough compensated. Other may feel differently, and that's their choice. It's whethe
Re: At Least You Received Some Benefit (Score:2)
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Exactly 1000x this! Kroger, and FoodLion both offer substantial savings for using their card. Duh its for market research. Yes they can probably figure out how many people in your household, their ages, gender, and some other things from the products you buy.
Mostly not things any of us really consider secret or private. Gets a little grey- around some of the health products maybe in terms of you wish everyone would mind their own beezwax but even most of that stuff is things that a savvy sales drone would
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Equifax, Experian, Lexus Nexus and crowd offer you nadda for subjecting you to all their invasive bullshit and placing you at real risk of consequential harm like identity theft.
Actually, the worst thing about what credit bureaus is that they use proprietary algorithms to determine your creditworthiness based on the information they collect about you. If you run afoul of those black box algorithms even in a small way, it actually ends up costing you real money when you obtain a loan from a lender, in the form of higher interest rates.
It's far more insidious, has a tangible impact on your finances, and yet... we tolerate it because it's making banks more profitable and those banks
Re: At Least You Received Some Benefit (Score:2)
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That isn't 100% true. Huge swaths of the web are supported by ads, and those ads are based around the privacy invasion of companies like Google and Meta. That doesn't mean the bargain is worth it- I'm pretty sure it isn't- but the web couldn't exist as it currently does without those ads.
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the web couldn't exist as it currently does without those ads.
I agree. It could exist as something better.
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the web couldn't exist as it currently does without those ads.
I agree. It could exist as something better.
Could it really? How would it be paid for?
If advertising were banned from the web, I think pretty much everything other than online storefronts, government services sites and vanity pages would disappear behind paywalls, and most of them would just disappear completely. Including the search engines that make it possible to find the online storefronts and vanity pages you are looking for. Government services sites would be free and easy to find.
If targeted advertising were banned, we'd go back to the onl
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I think most people don't remember what that the pre-Google web was like, either because they're too young or because they weren't using it yet.
Yes, I do remember what pre-Google Internet was like. That's why I suggested things could have been better without the inundation of advertising (and it's related need to mine personal information for targeting). In the early days we had all the important building blocks without monetization. TCP/IP, DNS, FTP, HTTP, SMTP, etc. These things were designed for the purpose of communicating, not as a platform for advertising and for profit. You paid for an Internet connection, and most things from there on were
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I think your memory is rose-colored.
I'm not trying to say the early web was perfect. I'm saying in an alternate universe it might have developed in a different way that wasn't advertising-centric, and this would have been better.
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I think your memory is rose-colored.
I'm not trying to say the early web was perfect. I'm saying in an alternate universe it might have developed in a different way that wasn't advertising-centric, and this would have been better.
In this alternate universe, how is slashdot funded? How are web search engines funded? What about YouTube?
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Even when you aren't paying for that free stuff, someone was. There was a while when people were giving stuff away, but that was mostly paid for by whoever was hosting. It was great, but it only worked as long as the web was a small thing that companies and schools could afford to do as a giveaway. It was never going to work if the web was going to turn into a major communications medium.
We weren't going to have tens or hundred
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The alternative would have been if someone had come up with a workable scheme for micropayments before advertising took over. Even then, it's possible some kind of surveillance would have been invented anyway.
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The alternative would have been if someone had come up with a workable scheme for micropayments before advertising took over.
There were many good schemes for micropayments, but none of them worked because the concept is fundamentally flawed. It attempts to price content as negligibly cheap but not free, which ignores the fact that there is a non-trivial cognitive cost to decide whether the very low price is worth the very low value. Studies consistently find that people dislike micropayment schemes. You can see this effect in many other domains; when the unit price drops below a threshold systems transition to flat subscription m
Re: At Least You Received Some Benefit (Score:2)
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Most people are barely aware of what they are handing over. Go and ask people at the checkout store what they think they share when using their loyalty card. I'm quite sure at least half think at most what they bought. Some probably believe that certainly the store won't even share that, maybe just how much they spent or how often they shop. You'll likely find a few that aren't even aware that the store shares data at all.
Reminiscent of Target's pregnancy detection... (Score:5, Insightful)
I remember a story about how Target's systems were so sophisticated that they were sending out coupons for baby products to a pregnant teen before her family (at least, it never was clear to me whether she knew at that point or not) knew she was pregnant.
It's gotta be a story from at least 12 years ago because I had heard about it from my managers when I was working at Target, but the non-paywalled story [forbes.com] that I can find today comes from 2012 (actually, exactly 11 years ago looking at the date). It was to the point where the father called in to the local store, chewed the manager out for advertising such things to his daughter, saying they were encouraging her to get pregnant. A little while later, he learned that his daughter was already pregnant.
Better headline (Score:4, Funny)
I remember a story about how Target's systems were so sophisticated that they were sending out coupons for baby products to a pregnant teen before her family (at least, it never was clear to me whether she knew at that point or not) knew she was pregnant.
The headline should be “Forget them tracking eggs and milk you buy, they are tracking your actual eggs and milk”.
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That's great - you win the internet today!
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I remember a story about how Target's systems were so sophisticated that they were sending out coupons for baby products to a pregnant teen before her family (at least, it never was clear to me whether she knew at that point or not) knew she was pregnant.
It's gotta be a story from at least 12 years ago because I had heard about it from my managers when I was working at Target, but the non-paywalled story [forbes.com] that I can find today comes from 2012 (actually, exactly 11 years ago looking at the date). It was to the point where the father called in to the local store, chewed the manager out for advertising such things to his daughter, saying they were encouraging her to get pregnant. A little while later, he learned that his daughter was already pregnant.
Yeah, the story is at least that old, but it reeks of confirmation bias and accessibility bias to me.
How many random people got baby product ads, shrugged at how dumb it was (or went and yelled at a poor manager) and didn't go on to find out someone in the house was pregnant? And how many stories were written about them?
To show that Target was actually able to correctly predict pregnancies and advertise to mothers-to-be, you'd have to show that they didn't also deliver those ads to non-pregnant women of
Hannaford's privacy policy... (Score:2)
"You have none."
Afterall, a broken VPN connection is giving doctors notice on what you buy...
Safeway has a two-tiered system. (Score:2)
Safeway has a two-tiered system. The older one uses your (alleged) home phone and a name you gave (or made up) when you registered. It gives substantial discounts.
Add the new one on top of it and you have to give them your cellphone n.umber (and, I think {no WAY I'd sign up}) use an app at some points. That ties it to you (or at least a burner phone) and lets them track you around the store. This gives some deeper discounts - often 50% or even more, sometimes even free stuff - on significant amounts of g
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I think most people don't have problems with the grocery store using information to provide services, deals or even do marketing. The question is what happens when they sell it to a third party, and do they even vet those third parties. Anonymized data is one thing, but information such as detailed location tracking is quite sensitive. Imagine if someone has a restraining order protecting them and now the potential criminal can see their habitual movement patterns.
Oh no! (Score:1)
They want to sell me stuff I'm interested in?
They want to give me ads for stuff I am interested in, rather than random shit I would never buy?
Oh...the horror!
Old News (Score:2)
This is nothing new and because data is cheap to gather and store they'll look for every way to mine it as well. Shit, just browsing for a product on their website tags you for life.
I still get "Because you bought this" or "We have recommendations" from Amazon.
My favorites:
"Because you bought The Magic School Bus Software" from like 1998, "We recommend Dora the Explorer"
Now because I have grandkids the same thing is happening all over. Buy a Kindle for kids and you get all the ads and software sellers becau
Corporations don't want to make money (Score:2, Insightful)
They eventually forget (Score:2)
I have an ancient Safeway card, from days of yore, or at least when they first got 'em. When I use it the checker looks at the screen or receipt and says "Thank you, mister..." and then trails off because the name field is completely blank. You can't create a Safeway card account like that, but nothing prevents one from existing, and they seem to have botched the transition of the old cards into the current database. When that happens I make sure to say "You can call me Mister Blank" or "You can just think
Why can't they do this when you just pay credit? (Score:2)
Can't they do this when you pay via credit card? (Which is why stores should not get your credit card number, or personal information when you use a chip & pin card - but I was under the impression that they still do.)
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Can't they do this when you pay via credit card?
Walmart certainly does. Their app shows past in-store purchases made using any credit card which you've associated with your account.
I'd venture a guess that the reason certain stores have stuck with loyalty cards are that they enable tracking of cash purchases, and the cards themselves do create something of a feeling that you're participating in an exclusive membership, even though they hand them out to anyone simply for the asking.
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Now that you mention it, I do remember having this discussion with a store manager who said they they just wanted to get something with the store logo onto your key chain.
Do they carry Anal Lube? (Score:2)
I got a coupon
Tommy Tutone (Score:2)
Oldest trick in the book. Just use your local area code + 867-5309
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The cycle repeats (Score:2)
In the early 2000's, when every grocery chain suddenly wanted your telephone number so you could be a "club member", I started telling people that this was for data collection purposes – for profiling you – and not to go along with it. Almost every single person told me I was deluded.
You see, phone numbers used to change every time you moved, but with cell phones and 'number portability' laws, people started keeping their phone numbers as a permanent number. Same thing with email addresses. Well
You don't need to use a "club card" for this (Score:2)
Simply running the same PAN (private account number) every time you check out (ie, paying with the same card) is enough to establish a cohort of data on your behavior. This sort of data tracking is hardly new - it's positively rampant within the general credit-card processing industry since at least 2010 (could be more, but that's my furthest recollection).
So... I don't get the point of the outrage article... Pay with a thing that has a unique ID, and then think companies aren't going to track behavior of t
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Exactly. This helps them pay for ads that are tailored for me which I will never see because I use ad blockers.
switch cards from time to time (Score:2)
15 or so years ago at the Chaos Communication Camp we had a discussion about these cards, which at that time had been around for only a few years. I suggested that people should just exchange cards with someone else from time to time. To mess up their algorithms. Some people did it right then and there. I still think it's a good idea.
Since most cards require you to fill out a form only, and don't check anything, you can just fill out a new form at a different store of the same chain every quarter or so, wit
Analyze This (Score:2)
Then they are going to find out that I no longer go into supermarkets and haven't since they started offering to pick my stuff for me. Free labor, why wouldn't I use it?
Back in the day... (Score:2)
Back in the day when my mother used to buy meat at the butcher, vegetables at the greengrocer, etc., these folks knew her personally. The good old days, right? Yeah, but they gossiped about the other customers. So, which is better? (Yes, I am old, and that really was the case in 1950s NYC. Imagine how much worse in a small town.)
Phone number (Score:2)
Just type in someone else's phone number as the alternate ID, tracking problem solved. I know all kinds of phone numbers I can use.
Their loss (Score:1)
If they're selling info about my shopping habits that slightly decreases the prices I pay for groceries. Since I see no ads ever, it costs me nothing. The people who are paying Kroger for my info are wasting every penny then spend. Yay.
Been saying this for YEARS and nobody listened (Score:2)
Pay cash at the grocery store and forget the 'discount' cards. There, you just took back a little of your privacy, was that so hard?