Originally Posted by
Scott Shepherd
I have no problem giving the bank information if I apply for a loan. That's not what's happening here. Essentially what's happening (and not with the bank, but with other institutions) is that the company is essentially selling your transaction history to the highest bidder. You wouldn't be happy if the bank took your transactions and sold them to a marketing firm who now knows you buy beer every Tuesday, frequent McDonalds for lunch, etc. If a bank did that, this country would come unglued. However, people are doing that very thing every single day WITHOUT your permission (I don't recall seeing ANY posting on ANY terminal at ANY store that says "By swiping your card, you have given us the right to collect and use data in any way we see fit". Now, if you sign up for their frequent shopper cards, there's probably that line in there. However, I'm just a guy walking in, no relationship with the store's programs, and all I do is buy a bag of chips and now you've logged that data against my debit card and started recording my shopping habits, linking them to my name and card number.
To me, that's a huge violation of privacy. I should be able to opt in or out of anything you plan to do with data collected about me.