The only “loyalty” cards that I have are memberships where you get discounts on every purchase (at the fabric store members pay less for everything) or where you have to join to shop (co-op).

Suzy’s point about credit cards is a good one. I use mine as little as possible (mostly for other reasons though).

Having said that however, I would also like to point out that unless you pay for everything in CASH and not a credit card, your purchases can be and probably are tracked anyway. I have several friends who work in the IT department at Mastercard, and their jobs entail maintenance and development of some pretty enormous “Usage” databases.

And since I’m a creature of habit, I have a fair number of “Buy 10 get 1 free” stamp cards. No tracking involved, but they regularly get me free stuff I would normally spend money on. It only takes up space in my wallet.

Though privacy is an issue to me, none of the places I sign up with are for everyday purchases. I keep everything sent to a PO Box, and some, like bevmo are attached to old phone#.

On another note. Try searching “Shoppers Enrolled In Loyalty Programs Spend More Money.”

I suppose people buy things they otherwise wouldn’t if they perceive it as a value.

Personally, I think my data, with fake contact info or not, is worth more than 10-20% off.

Disclosure: I’m a database admin

When you sign up for something, sign up using your address + the store name (e.g. if you sign up for Best Buy Rewards, and your email address is thesimpledollar@gmail.com, sign up using thesimpledollar+bestbuy@gmail.com). Email will still be delivered to thesimpledollar@gmail.com, but it will have that extra tag on it. You can then set up filters and rules in gmail so that anything that comes to thesimpledollar+bestbuy@gmail.com gets put into the ‘Best Buy’ filter. Easy to keep a visually organized inbox, and to track down who sold your email address when you start getting tons of spam.

There was no evidence he was drunk when he slipped but there was the purchase receipt of liquor.

What he does with liquor is upto him but the store did try to wiggle out by introducing his purchasing habit.

When you give over your name, address, and phone number and you give a corporation permission to track your behavior, none of that data is protected by law. A company is under no constraints that prevent it from selling or giving your information to anyone else.

So, let’s say you quit your job and start your own business. You need to buy health insurance. The health insuror could in theory go to Safeway, Albertson’s, et alii and purchase the past year or two worth of your buying data, and what do the insurors find? Lo! You buy two or three bottles of wine a week, and not only that, heaven help us, you buy a carton of cigarettes every now and then. Think you’re going to get that health insurance? And you’ll never know why you were turned down, or why your premiums are twice as much as your teetotalling neighbor’s.

Or, let’s say Safeway restrains itself from selling your information to the highest bidder. Let’s say instead your marriage falls apart. Your spouse’s lawyers, who are trying to wrest custody of your kids away from you, subpoena Safeway, which forks over the last three years’ worth of your buying habits to the court. Like your beer and wine? Smoke a bit? Buy the occasional risque magazine? All that information can be used against you.

Paranoia aside — and I think you can argue that these are very real possible scenarios, not products a fevered brain — in a society that grows more and more crowded and more and more intrusive in every way, privacy is an extremely valuable commodity. As a healthy human being, you need to know that your private life is YOUR private life, and that your every step and breath are not being watched by every commercial and government interest that comes along. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what every commercial and government interest out there wants to do (are you aware that you can hardly go anywhere these days without being recorded on a camera?). In this brave new world, we need to keep a grip on our right to be left aone.

Since you can hardly buy anything without an intrusive shopping card designed to keep an eye on you, the best defense is to lie, lie, and lie some more: supply fake information every which way you turn. I personally resent a system that forces me to lie to hang on to a principal of great value to me….and that should be of great value to all of us.

The loss of privacy is huge. It is an enormous loss to the American people and an enormous loss to our humanity.

And that is what difference it makes.