[violet13]

Before you say "another reason to stop using Paypal", keep in mind that credit card companies routinely share purchase data with online advertising companies. This is so that Google and others can tie online impressions to brick-and-mortar purchases, among other things.

Paypal is playing catch-up.

[JohnFen]

True, but it's still a great reason to stop using PayPal.

[jasonjayr]

It's not widely known but lookup "Level 3 Data" when processing credit card transactions.

Your whole receipt is sent to the CC companies, and used for ... well whatever you agreed to let them use it for. You read all the fine print, right?

[Semaphor]

I looked it up, and it seems L3 is only used by Visa and MC, and only for B2B/B2G.

Could you link a source supporting your claims?

[jasonjayr]

For obvious reasons, businesses are usually mum about this, but I've seen some reports that Amex takes L3 data for B2C stuff:

https://www.thecreditchronicles.com/blog/tips-and-tricks-for...

> Another suggestion is to watch out for whether your store shares Level 3 (L3) data with your credit card company. These levels indicate how much information about your transaction is shared with the credit card company. L3 data includes the most amount of information, including itemized data about exactly what you purchased. If the store shares L3 data, your credit card company will be able to easily determine that you have been purchasing gift cards.

> Whether a store shares L3 data may be different for Visa and Amex transactions. For Amex transactions, you can look at your statement history on the web (not mobile) Amex website to see if they include an itemized list of what you purchased. If not, then no L3 data has been shared. Thus, we suggest starting by making a small purchase at the retailer to determine if they share L3 data, and only scale up if they do not.

The infrastructure is clearly in place, it's just a matter of if the agreement is in place and if the store is ready to sell out their customers for the discounted interchange rate. I was hoping to find a better link than a CC points hacking site discussing "manufactured spending", but that's what I could find easily. Grocery stores supporting EBT/SNAP/Benefits must have the infrastructure in place to support L3 data: that's how they determine if you the transaction is eligible or not.

[pquki4]

For one, when purchasing a Delta ticket with an Amex card, they know exactly where your origin and destination are.

[tensor]

I thought that was only if you accept a "points plan" of some sort, which, of course we all do. :-/ Aeroplan is a great example of this too. No one ever asks what they are giving up for aeroplan. The answer is your entire purchase history!

People often focus on how the internet allows cross-site tracking and other privacy invasions, but generally don't get vocal about things like credit cards and points plans that have done this since time before the internet!

[yepguy]

It's worth noting that you can opt out of that too. You should have received a privacy disclosure with every credit card you've opened containing instructions on how to opt out. Usually you have to make a phone call - you won't find the option in your online banking portal.

[throwawayq3423]

Is there any credit card or banking company that doesn't do this?

[bhaney]

Another reason to stop using credit card companies