If having Store cards doesn't seem like a big deal to you read this.

[Justice wanted]

http://shopping.yahoo.com/articles/yshoppingarticles/818/how-target-figured-out-a-teen-girl-was-pregnant-before-her-father-did/


Every time you go shopping, you share intimate details about your consumption patterns with retailers. And many of those retailers are studying those details to figure out what you like, what you need, and which coupons are most likely to make you happy. Target, for example, has figured out how to data-mine its way into your womb, to figure out whether you have a baby on the way long before you need to start buying diapers. From the New York Times:

:SNIP:

So Target got sneakier about sending the coupons. The company can create personalized booklets; instead of sending people with high pregnancy scores books o’ coupons solely for diapers, rattles, strollers, and the “Go the F*** to Bed” book, they more subtly spread them about:

______________________________________________________________________________

Too me this is too much. A store or company knowing THIS much about my personal life just makes me ill.

[Electric Monk]

1. TARGET marketing, indeed

though I'm sure target isn't the only company doing this sort of marketing. Not by a long shot.

[Justice wanted]

3. Oh Yes. I know Target isn't the ONLY store doing it. All sort of companies are doing it. I'm sure

Amazon and ebay do it as well. I just think it is WAY TOO intrusive.

[RKP5637]

2. I always have mixed feelings about these cards. I like the discounts in the grocery store

here, for example, they are significant ... I think in that case the only thing they will learn about me is I eat a balanced meal and only buy things cheaply on sale.

[Justice wanted]

7. Hey BUT think about this. Do you buy women's products? Do you have a buy your gorceries with a

check or cash or credit cards? Do you use your discount card to purchase your medications over the counter and Prescription? (The major grocery store chain has a pharmacy and gas station) Do you want them to know how much and often you get gas?

Does any of this unnerve you? It does to me.

[limpyhobbler]

14. I don't like it either but I gave up.

For a few years I avoided signing up for store cards because I didn't want to be tracked.

But I had to sign up to get the deals and save money.

It kind of stinks. I would never voluntarily give extra info to the store so they can track me. But the price difference when using the card makes a big difference in my food budget. I can't afford not to do it. So I gave up and started using the card.

[RKP5637]

18. It really unnerved me the other day when the grocery store automated check out

machine greeted me by name, suggested I go back for a few more items, and when I went back said it had lined up a date for me for the night based on my preferences, and I should pickup some movie tickets on my way out! LOL

[jberryhill]

36. No condoms?

When they recommend those, buy them!

[RKP5637]

51. Nope, message said NO, due to pending block of all birth control devices by R's. n/t

[Justice wanted]

21. My husband has one and use it for discount on Gas (he drives 40 mins to work and back home each

way) I refuse have my name attached.

[MADem]

45. I put them in my dog's name and gave the pooch a medical degree!

You should see all the credit card and other "business opportunity" offers that pooch gets!

[RKP5637]

15. No, I just do it for food, that's all. Yep, but I know exactly what you mean. I find all of

Last edited Sun Feb 19, 2012, 10:40 AM - Edit history (1)

it unnerving.

All of the tracking via these cards and credit cards, Internet tracking, all of the surveillance of communication devices and also, all of the cameras around cities now.

And now we have drones overhead ... it's all a constant WTF to me ... It's like a genie out of the bottle, it'll never get stuffed back in again ... and at least as far as I can tell congress and SCOTUS do not give a damn about privacy.

[Duer 157099]

4. Seems you don't even need to have/use a store card

Seem they can do this tracking just by using the credit card info that you use to pay for your items.

Time to go back to buying with cash.

[gvstn]

28. Target goes by credit card, too

It creeped me out when I first realized it.

I buy some big items for my mom at Target (cat litter, feminine products, pharmacy stuff). When I go in to pick up some M&M's or something I get those register printed coupons for many of the same items I buy for my mom once a month. It has nothing to do with my purchases but I use the same credit card.

I really don't like it. Pretty soon, I'm sure target will have "affiliates" where they buy a $1's worth of stock in another company and then can sell their info to them and tell you they are only sharing it with their partners. I don't like that crap. When their partner becomes a health insurance provider and they report all the food stuffs you buy and how often. Just asking for trouble. And the records are stored forever.

Target corp. may not have any bad intentions but the data could be used in negative ways far into the future.

[Duer 157099]

39. You and I seem to be the minority who can project ahead

and see the nefarious prospects waiting. Bugs me when so many people take the "so what?" view without thinking of future consequences, and you point out a very realistic one.

[AllyCat]

43. Yup. Dick's Sporting goods does this. I couldn't find the receipt for

the second piece of crap item I had bought that broke on first use. I went in to appeal to the manager. "No problem, we can track it with your credit card". Nice. Glad I got a refund, but miffed they actually save that stuff, meaning, they have my credit card number too for someone to have stored on a laptop that gets stolen... Cash is a beautiful thing.

[Terry_M]

5. It's unavoidable

Embrace it.
Even if you intentionally try to be electronically invisible, you can be tracked via the knowledge of who your friends are and the fact that your friends make no such attempts (per a recent article, software can take a good guess (not a guarantee) at where you are based on tracking your friends who publicly share the information).
The way I figure:
1. There will be less noise. Software will personalize and properly target advertising at me (don't you like it when Amazon shows lists of other stuff people bought when they purchased the product you're about to?)
2. In the end, there isn't a person looking this stuff over and trying to figure YOU out. There is software, and to the corporation and the software you are just shopper #2130503. You are NOT a person with a name who likes this and that.

[Hawkowl]

46. It IS avoidable

Just use cash. It might be a bit inconvenient, but no one can track you using cash.

[gvstn]

56. The problem

The problem with this is you are USUALLY not a person to them. BUT if for some reason you become a person to someone in the chain then all the information is available.

You like fresh cut flowers around the house and some wine with your dinner on cold nights. You pick up condoms once in a while. You buy that stuff around town. You find yourself in a lawsuit with your church volunteer landlord over your security deposit. Suddenly, you are portrayed in court as a drunken womanizer vs. an upstanding man of the faith. He may well be cheating you but the "facts" don't lie; you bought wine and flowers every week and probably had sex. You're a "bad" person as portrayed by the opposition lawyer. As long as someone believes his rhetoric you lose. (There may be better examples but you get the idea.) Look far enough back and cherry pick items and add a little hyperbole and you can make anyone into a demon for your purposes.

I like Amazon's "You might also like" suggestions but I do see how they could get out of hand if I bought everything from Amazon or Amazon started adding in suggestions for everything I ever bought anywhere with my credit card.

I certainly wouldn't mind a federal regulation that said all purchase data tied to a credit card had to be destroyed within two years of transaction. But with the thought police in full swing, I don't see that happening until a few more Senator's Ambien purchases are made public through scandal.

[niyad]

6. let's see, I buy calcium and zinc, cotton balls, additive-free soaps, lotions, etc., and I love the

colour blue.

note to target: I AM NOT PREGNANT, so don't send me any baby stuff coupons, you jerks.

oh, I forgot, I don't shop at target.

[elleng]

8. 'Intimate details?'

Don't think so.

[richmwill]

9. Amazon does the same thing

They observe your searches and use them for marketing. If I search for HDTV's, I'll get an email from them within the next few days promoting their latest deals on HDTV's. If I search for convection ovens, within the next few days I'll gewt an email from them promoting their latest deals on them. Not hard to see what they're doing.

[virgogal]

10. And on this page I see an ad for Broadway strollers. Coincidence?

[niyad]

12. right now the as is for a 'compassionate, christian ob-gyn:

[napoleon_in_rags]

11. But wait, why isn't the economy booming?

With all this targeted marketing? Because we've all gone off track, that's why.

PEace.

[jberryhill]

13. So? The small town general store manager did the same thing

Sam Drucker knew what everyone was buying and what they might like.

The only difference is that you need automation to provide personal service on a large scale.

[Justice wanted]

16. True! But did Mr Drucker than turn around and Sell this knowledge and infomation to the highest

bidder? Did he Basically give your Name and Address to companies like Kraft or Hillshire Farms who than sent coupons to you?


I don't think so.

[jberryhill]

19. OMG! Coupons for stuff I'm likely to buy?

The horror.

[Justice wanted]

22. You may not have a problem with that. I personally do not want so many companies and people

knowing how often I buy pads.

[jberryhill]

33. Would every 28 days or so be a good guess

Mr. Drucker at the general store rang up every purchase.

[Justice wanted]

49. actually not for me. My cycle is VERY different than an average woman.

Too me there is a BIG difference from Mr Drucker and let's say Managers, CEOs or others knowing all my business. They use this info to chart buying purchases, and a bunch of stuff. Yeah it is eventually lumpped and group into a larger whole BUT it is also held in individual slots.

A friend of mine did some grocery shopping one time. Either the check out girl forgot to place a bag in her buggy with several items or it was picked up by mistake by the previous shopper.

Anyways she went back to the store to find the bag or get replacements. When she got to the customer service she realized she forgot her receipt. The woman was like Do you have our store card? Friend produced store card. Woman took the store card and scanned it than asked to see a ID to make sure she had the right infomation. Girl asked when friend had moved? Friend answered about a month ago. Girl said she would need to get new card for her new residence soon.

Friend said about a month ago without thinking. So the lady asked which items they where because she wanted to highlight them for the checkout person. So my friend rattle them off and the woman wrote them down and dissappeared in back for a couple of minutes. She returned with a printed list of my friend's shopping for what was suppose to be that day. It turns out that the list printed out was from 2 years back. The woman mis typed the date.

Maybe that's not freaky to you BUT to me that is too much of my personal infomation at anyone's hands

[jmowreader]

31. Mr. Drucker didn't have anyone to sell his information to

[csziggy]

32. No, but Mr Drucker gossiped with everybody in town

In a small town or a tight knit neighborhood, no one had secrets. I grew up in a small town. Everybody knew who was expecting, which teenage girls went on "vacation" for most of a school year and why.

They knew which families had financial problems because the clothing store knew they weren't buying new clothes and the grocery store knew they were buying cheaper meat. There were no secrets then, but we didn't worry as much because it was the members of our communities who knew them.

Now the "secrets" are being learned by big corporations and traded with other big corporations. That is a whole lot different.

[jberryhill]

37. No, THAT was Mr. Haney

He'd do anything for a buck.

But Mr. Drucker you could trust.

[Ikonoklast]

52. Mr. Haney had Mr. Drucker print all the photos he took.

Mr. Drucker blackmailed Mr. Haney for years.

[jberryhill]

55. No wonder Haney was always after more money

Drucker was a smooth operator.

He also ran underage girls out of Petticoat Junction.

[MorningGlow]

17. I only have three store cards

One for PetCo, one for PetSmart (to get the discount when they have sales on wee wee pads--incontinent cat).

The third is for my local supermarket.

I am convinced the supermarket trolls my buying habits solely to discontinue whatever I buy the most of.

[BiggJawn]

26. Me too.

"Why did you discontinue carrying this? It sure as shit can't be because I was the only one buying it, because the stock turned over pretty fast..."

"Uh, I dunno..."

[Gman]

20. Why is this a bad thing? There are a lot of people that work at Target

and they keep their job when people come in and buy baby stuff or whatever. If it attracts business and keeps people coming back to Target and people get to work at Target and feed their families and put roofs over their heads, why is this a bad thing?

[FarCenter]

23. You don't like getting coupons for stuff you might actually need to buy?

Instead of just getting coupons for random stuff?

[Justice wanted]

25. Not coming to my home with my name on it. No I'm sorry I personally think is too much

[BiggJawn]

24. What the stores know about me...

I eat, I shit (well, they assume I do, since I buy a 20-roll package about every 6 months) I like Kona coffee, and I read gun magazines and shoot pellet rifles.

If that coupon printer at the checkout ever starts spitting out coupons for free weekends on match-dot-com and Cialis, I'll start worrying.

[saras]

27. They're not a big deal to me. I don't use them and the stores accept me.

When they ask for data, I never make a fuss anymore, but politely and blandly make up stuff at random - it's hard to pull off joke addresses that are subtle enough, especially without cracking a smile. Others may be better actors.

Another reason to pay cash whenever practical.

And, in general, the less data you try to give them, the more accurate the data they DO get is likely to be. If you bury them in garbage data, it is quite expensive to dig the 'real' you out of it.

When the cards first appeared in this area, I knew a performer who 'lost' hers extremely often, and got free copies from all the different branches of the store. She gave them out at performances, with the instruction to only buy ice cream with them. If this behavior became the norm, they would recede in importance.

[Honeycombe8]

29. Scary. I was wondering why I got pet coupons. I have pets. nt

[jberryhill]

34. But don't you see?

When they come around to lock up all the pet owners, they'll know exactly where to find you!

[Rochester]

30. I don't have any "store cards", and...

...I avoid stores that use them whenever possible.
I do not want the junk mail, and I refuse to pay more than those who do submit to receiving it.

[quakerboy]

35. hmm

I wonder what they make of it when my wife uses her Canadian friends phone number at Safeway on a regular basis.

I guess the simplest thing to do is to just stop buying things.

[NV Whino]

38. My buying habits must confuse the hell out of them

I never get coupons for anything I buy.

[jberryhill]

40. Do they even HAVE coupons for weed?

I bought rolling papers, some plumbing fixtures, plastic tubing and an etch-a-sketch.

I figured I couldn't miss!

On edit: Damn, I forgot the Pink Floyd CD!

[pipi_k]

57. Same here...

I always get coupons for crap I never buy.

What's up with that...

[NV Whino]

58. Trying to expand your repertoire I guess

Doesn't work on me. I don't buy corn flakes when I want cheerios.

[alphafemale]

41. Courtesy Scan Please?

Learn the magic words.

[Comrade Grumpy]

42. At Safeway, I just punch in my phone number...

which comes up with the name of some other guy who probably had that phone number before me. Now, Safeway knows that Mr. Cavasso likes that Sauza tequila, especially with that Safeway Club Card discount.

[PuppyBismark]

44. This is not new, it has been going on for many years

If anyone here is surprised by this, you have not been paying attention. There are few stores that you do business with that are not doing serious data mining with your purchase patterns. The horse has been out of the barn and been sold to the glue factory. Ever shop at Amazon.com? They know just what you like, what you look at, etc.

Sorry, it is much to late to do anything here. It's the price you pay for the discounts you get with their loyalty card.

[Raine]

47. That's why when I got the card I gave them fake info

they can keep track of what I buy but they won't have any REAL information on the REAL ME. They can collect all the crap they want but none of it will lead them to a real person.

[FrodosPet]

48. What about the NSA?

Reality check: I'm sure the NSA has a lot more information on everyone posting here than Target, Kroger, etc. does through the loyalty cards.

[Codeine]

50. I'm not bothered by this at all.

I'm not ashamed of my buying habits; let the world know I enjoy Tofurkey sandwich slices and store brand almond milk if they want that sort of info.

Why I should feel the need to protect the sanctity of my grocery cart contents is beyond me, really.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

53. I don't care.

Do you have any idea how much money those books save us? Instead of getting crap we throw out, we actually get coupons we use! It's about getting you into the store. Because I don't know about you, but I rarely stick to my list at target. They have some badass clearance sections. I found a hat and a double pair of gloves for 1.20 the other day. That was freaking wonderful. And their coupons are for my dogs' food, my toilet paper, tomato sauce and on and on. Data mine the crap out of my credit card purchases, Target. You're saving me money and I LOVE IT!

[TexasProgresive]

54. I have only one store care for Kroger

I never filled out the form and it calls me "Valued Customer." I refuse to give them that much information. I also pay for a lot of stuff with cash.