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From: schweige@aldebaran.cs.nps.navy.mil (Jeffrey M. Schweiger)
Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk,alt.privacy
Subject: Re: Safeway Stores to Accept Charge Cards
Message-ID: <2050@aldebaran.cs.nps.navy.mil>
Date: 5 Apr 91 16:58:53 GMT
References: <13810@asylum.SF.CA.US>
Reply-To: schweige@taurus.cs.nps.navy.mil (Jeffrey M. Schweiger)
Distribution: usa
Organization: Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey CA
Lines: 38

In article <13810@asylum.SF.CA.US> langz@asylum.SF.CA.US (Lang Zerner) writes:
>According to the San Francisco Chronicle, p. C1, April 4, 1991, the
>national Safeway supermarket chain will soon begin accepting Visa and
>MasterCard for purchases of groceries and other items.  The banks that
>serve Safeway will get a special rate on purchases (1 percent) to
>encourage them to pass the discount on to Safeway.  Customers will also
>have the option to use debit cards such as bank ATM cards (Lucky
>supermarkets in California have offered this convenience for some time).
...
>One way to let Safeway and its customers attain almost all of the
>advantages of the new system without endangering customer privacy is for
>Safeway to bill only for the total purchase amount, and not maintain
>records of the purchase details any longer than necessary to conduct the
>business of selling groceries.  If this is impossible for technical
>reasons, I would at least request their written assurance that they will
>not release the detail information to third parties.

This system has been in use at several Safeway's for quite some time.  The
only information recorded on the charge slip is the total purchase amount.  My
charge receipts (I've used the system) are separate from the normal cash
register receipt and do not include extra details.  In this regard they have
no more information than any other credit card charge receipt (and in some
cases, less).  The only marketing information that the banks are getting from
the charge receipts are that the card was used at a Safeway.  It should be
noted that the charge card machine is not linked to the cash register.  The
cashier has to manually key in the amount of sale to the charge card terminal.

I do not see this Safeway endeavor as making any new inroads into privacy
issues.

Jeff Schweiger


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Jeff Schweiger	      Standard Disclaimer   	CompuServe:  74236,1645
Internet (Milnet):				schweige@taurus.cs.nps.navy.mil
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