Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sdd.hp.com!hp-pcd!hp-vcd!johne
From: johne@hp-vcd.HP.COM (John Eaton)
Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk
Subject: Re: Lifestyle Information ( was Re: Safeway Stores to Accept Charge Cards)
Message-ID: <6750021@hp-vcd.HP.COM>
Date: 10 Apr 91 21:33:43 GMT
References: <9418@rsiatl.Dixie.Com>
Organization: Hewlett Packard, Vancouver, WA
Lines: 19

<<<
< Of course, other reasons for this to be valuable were pointed out by John
< DeArmond in his POS posting -- for example, your health insurance provider
< would be delighted to find out that you were buying 3 cartons per day of
< cigarettes...odds are that by dropping the coverage of all smokers, they
< would save quite a bit on reduced lung-cancer claims.  This sort of data
< use is a severe invasion of your privacy, and is increasingly likely
< to occur once the data is available. 
----------
Insurance companies can become real inquisitive when faced with paying a
claim. Suppose grandma dies and you try to collect on her life insurance
policy. If she was paying non-smoker rates but was listed by Safeway as
a carton a week buyer then they just might decide to offer you a lower
payout corresponding to what her premium would have purchased at a smokers
rate. How do you prove that she was buying them for someone else? 


John Eaton
!hp-vcd!johne