[jahabrewer]

Isn't it wild how little cultural attention is paid to supermarket tracking?

[calibas]

I don't think people really understand what happened. Consumer protection laws allow people to choose whether they consent to being tracked, but then this mutated into a system that effectively means you pay an extra fee to opt-out of tracking.

[pnw]

One of the big US supermarket chains allegedly offered their entire loyalty database to the feds in the wake of 9/11.

[jeffbee]

In what way would that be even remotely useful?

[freitzkriesler2]

I put in fake names, addresses, email, phone numbers, and demographic info on mine.

My personal favorite was Tommy Tutone and the number I used was 8675309 with a zip code of 90210.

Lasted for a year and then they deleted it.

I'm a little less flippant now.

[klyrs]

Hey, I've got the same phone number and zip code... were you born on the unix epoch too?

[toast0]

I recall hearing a stat at Yahoo orientation in 2004 that a very large % of Yahoo accounts had the zip code as 90210. I can't remember what it was, but I want to say something like 5-10%. Dramatically larger than any zip code could legitimately have.

[xanderlewis]

What do you think ought to be controversial about it?

[OscarTheGrinch]

Being surveilled as to what food / sanitary, etc products an individual buys is just icky. Supermarkets already know how much they sell, now they want to sell our behavioural info too.

[Symbiote]

Private companies keeping records of every single thing you buy. They have a very good idea of your diet, lifestyle, health issues, pregnancy, alcohol consumption, etc.

But in return we get 10p off a pack of doughnuts.

[varispeed]

They force vulnerable people to give up their privacy in order to enjoy normal prices.

[beejiu]

Going slightly off topic, but I find it surprising that GDPR doesn't offer more protections here. The supermarkets are not using consent, but legitimate interest, as the legal basis to process data.

This is surprising because I would think you should be able to opt out of processing/marketing, while still having the loyalty/points aspect of the card. Particularly given non-member prices can be double to triple the price.

[jsmith99]

Nectar is especially bad here. I signed up because Sainsbury’s have ‘special’ prices for nectar card users on many items (presumably they increase the price and then reduce it back down for cardholders). But there was no way to opt out of marketing and tracking.

By contrast when I signed up for Tesco clubcard, even pre gdpr, I was easily able to opt out of tracking. I don’t get targeted vouchers, or any discount coupons, but I still get points and clubcard prices.

[JohnFen]

> By contrast when I signed up for Tesco clubcard, even pre gdpr, I was easily able to opt out of tracking

How do you know they stopped tracking and didn't just stop giving you vouchers and whatnot?