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From: rcd@ico.isc.com (Dick Dunn)
Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk
Subject: Re: What is private information?
Summary: selling your privacy cheaply
Message-ID: <1991Jan11.010144.2890@ico.isc.com>
Date: 11 Jan 91 01:01:44 GMT
References: <1990Dec25.062336.16836@looking.on.ca> <6750001@hp-vcd.HP.COM> <3566@gazette.bcm.tmc.edu>
Organization: Interactive Systems Corporation, Boulder, CO
Lines: 59

rick@pavlov.ssctr.bcm.tmc.edu (Richard H. Miller) writes:
> ...A local supermarket
> chain in Houston has started a program with Citicorp to provide "cash-back" if
> you buy a certain number of items over a month period. This is done by placing
> a bar-code strip on the back of your check-cashing card. Then they scan the bar
> code whenever you pay for stuff. Each month you get a statement of what you
> bought (as far as the program goes) and a coupon to be used the next time you
> shop...

Safeway (a national chain) is doing essentially the same thing here in
Colorado.  You have a personal card, scanned at the start of your order, to
track what you buy and give you "free" groceries (based on what you buy) at
the end of the month.

Mind you, I would never *think* of getting one of these things...but I did
check out the application you sign.  There's a note on it saying, in
effect, that you authorize them to collect information about you and they
can do whatever they want with it!  Now, the idea is obvious--things like
giving you coupons or freebies for stuff you actually buy--and there are
other plausible uses, such as in-depth marketing analysis.  It's valuable
information, and they want it so they can sell it.  There are all sorts of
interesting correlations that might be drawn among your various purchase
habits.  But it need not stop there--if you get the card, they can do just
about anything they want with the info...
	1.  Let's see--guy buys rubber bands for ponytail; he's a
	longhair.  Buys too many plastic bags--must be into dope.  Let's
	keep track of him; next time he's buying chips and donuts after
	midnight, it's cause he's stoned; let's tell the cops and have them
	go bust him.  (I constructed this fun one because it almost fits
	the things I do!  I do have a ponytail.  Like many old-time
	computer folk, I do stay up late, and get the munchies at the most
	unreasonable hours, tho not because I'm a doper.  And we do buy a
	lot of plastic "baggies"--because that's what we use for repack-
	aging cat food in quantity.)
	2.  Think about what an unscrupulous employee might do with the
	information:  Hmmm...guy started buying condoms all of a sudden.
	Must be cheating on his wife; looks like a good blackmail target.
	3.  Women - if you're often a last-minute sort of purchaser, do
	you want the information recorded about your purchases to give
	Safeway your menstrual schedule???  Or, on a more mundane level,
	will it be "only her hairdresser and the Safeway purchase database
	know for sure..."?
	4.  How much info could an insurance company use out of this to
	deny insurance or raise premiums?  (They could find out not just
	the obvious stuff like smokers, but unhealthy dietary habits,
	unusual amounts of over-the-counter medicine,...)
Perhaps I should offer a prize for most outlandish invasion of privacy that
could be conducted with this database.

I'm not surprised that people will sell some of their privacy for con-
venience or money...but in this case I'm surprised that people are willing
to sell so much privacy for so little gain.  Over a longish period--a year
or so--you can learn an awful lot about a person or family if you have a
complete record of items/quantities purchased, with date/time of each.

Pay cash!
-- 
Dick Dunn     rcd@ico.isc.com -or- ico!rcd       Boulder, CO   (303)449-2870
   ...Mr. Natural says, "Use the right tool for the job."