Identity swapping makes life relative

June 8, 2000 1:20 AM

Identity swapping makes life relative

Do any of you do the Safeway Card Shuffle? I think I probably would, but then again the level of tracking where I live is currently negligible, so it isn't yet an issue. How about where you live?

And how does this tie in to online privacy, like advertising cookies and programs like RealPlayer and GoZilla that track and report where you've been and what you've been doing?
posted by lia (8 comments total)

The Safeway Card Shuffle is dumb. Here's why.

http://world.std.com/~asuter/arkive3/grocery.straight

(See also)
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Dean_Lenort/groce.htm
posted by straight at 9:26 AM on June 8, 2000

I live in abject fear that Jewel will learn of my insane affection for Mini Ravioli and Split Pea soup.
posted by dhartung at 12:43 PM on June 8, 2000

Ok, to everyone who thinks that the topic of your purchasing habits being sold without your express consent, consider the story of the woman who kept getting mailers for products for "her new baby"... which she miscarried in the 3rd month.

But no, for 6 more months, she had to keep getting reminders in the mail, every week.

<sigh>
posted by baylink at 2:13 PM on June 8, 2000

i don't see how any direct mail company could have figured out she was pregnant by knowing what she purchased, tho. to know that would be much more invasive than knowing she bought extra pickles a couple weeks running.
posted by palegirl at 4:19 PM on June 8, 2000

Maybe they dicovered she'd stopped renewing her prescription for The Pill.
Prescription histories ending up in marketing databases.. souind scary?
Let's see... I'll check the Safeway Card files now, and find out how many posters to the Prozac thread failed to mention ALL the psych meds they'd tried...

posted by wendell at 5:07 PM on June 8, 2000

Purchases that might reveal you're pregnant:
Pregnancy test
Folic acid supplements
Name Your Baby Book
Prenatal vitamins
Not to mention registering for a baby shower (which many women do in the early months).
I bought a pregnancy test once, and soon after I got some coupons for formula, diapers, & some kind of baby gas treatment. I wasn't pregnant, but even if I had been I think those coupons would have irritated me.
posted by wiremommy at 7:20 PM on June 8, 2000

But no, for 6 more months, she had to keep getting reminders in the mail, every week.

the same thing would have happened if she had subscribed to ONE single magzine about motherhood, or left an email address on a parenting newsgroup. It's not really about the information being public - a lot of information always has been. It's more about the agressive marketing tactics of those who collect and re-sell the information.

I sometimes subscribe to magazines with fake middle initials just to see where they'll pop up... try it sometime.
posted by mikewas at 7:54 PM on June 8, 2000

Prescription histories ending up in marketing databases.. sound scary?One of Canada's national drug store chains is planning to do just that when they start their "customer loyalty card" program later this year. The sign-up form even asks for the names and birthdays of any future consumer-- I mean, children in the family.
posted by jess at 8:11 PM on June 8, 2000