[pnathan]

If you log into a loyalty account for a Kroger store (QFC, Fred Meyer, others)... you see similar transaction lists. This is extremely normal for retailers.

Also, machine learning can create shadow profiles for people, even those who don't have a loyalty account. (E.g., a purchase occurs every Friday around 5:30 and buys a specific beer and specific brats...).

This is all obvious stuff to me, but, also, people might not be aware that every interaction - touchpoint - on a big enterprise is recorded.

[xanaxagoras]

Does paying in cash "protect" me from these shadow profiles?

[sudhirj]

Not entirely. Think stores are still free to use any signals available at their own premises, like camera footage, license plate numbers in their parking lot, Wifi Mac addresses, or even gait analysis if they feel like it :-/

[Lammy]

This is why I use <local-area-code>-867-5309 for every "loyalty" chain. I'd rather get the discount but also mix my data with as many other people as possible to make it worthless.

[pnathan]

as I mentioned, they can observe purchase patterns and derive that a given individual is making those purchases if its unique enough.

gently, my take on privacy is that, we will never be able to turn the clock back to 1970; we have to instead reconceptualize privacy in the age of pervasive sousviellance & surveillance.