Article: Privacy Traded for Discounts

Hartford Courant: Privacy Traded For Discounts: Apparently the Hartford (Connecticut) Courant has an article on intrusive customer loyalty programs. At least that's what I gleaned from the Google summary (below). I never read the full text because I didn't want to fill out the intrusive Courant registration form:

Privacy Traded For Discounts
Hartford Courant (subscription), CT - 3 hours ago
... Give a company only basic personal information, such as name and address.

Never give out your Social Security or bank account numbers. ...

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Public Interest Advocacy Centre on Privacy

In my previous post below, I made a reference to the Public Interest Advocacy Centre. They have been very active on the privacy front, making well-reasoned submissions on PIPEDA when it was still "Bill C-6" and on the Canadian Standards Association Model Code for the Protection of Personal Information in 2002.

In 2001, the PIAC complained to the Privacy Commissioner about the consent practices of a number of high-profile businesses, including Scotiabank, Bell (and a bunch of its subsidiaries), the Bay and Airmiles (operated by the Loyalty Group). The full-text of the Commissioner' findings are on the PIAC site, instead of the abbreviations that are on the Commissioner's site.

When I read the Commissioner's report on the Airmiles Program, it was interesting to read the following comment, made after reviewing the Airmiles privacy commitment:

Nor, curiously, does it mention two points that I suspect many prospective members would be relieved to learn: (1) that Loyalty limits its disclosure of information to the items that I have listed above and does not identify specific purchases; and (2) that Loyalty does not disclose Collectors' transaction information between Sponsors.

Most people I talk to assume that loyalty programs -- and at least this program -- collects detailed "shopping cart" information. With pharmacies as members of the Airmiles program, this would be a huge issue.

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Article: Loyalty cards plus legwork can track beef buying

The Seattle Times: Loyalty cards plus legwork can track beef buying: Loyalty cards raise quite a few privacy issues. Many people worry about what is done with information that is collected through their use and many people assume the worst about the practices of companies that operate the cards. (See CASPIAN - Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering.) Almost all the discussions I've seen revolve around privacy and marketing. This article from this morning's Seattle Times puts a very interesting spin on what can be done with information that may be collected when consumers use their loyalty cards.

"Sunday, January 11, 2004

By Carol M. Ostrom, Seattle Times staff reporter

If you use a supermarket loyalty card, the store knows a lot about what you buy. But can you use that card to find out if you bought recalled meat from the nation's first mad cow?

Not very easily, say supermarket chains that use such cards, which include the Safeway Club Card, QFC Advantage Card and Albertsons Preferred Savings Card. "

On the subject of loyalty programs, The Public Interest Advocacy Centre's website contains some materials (See their privacy page at http://www.piac.ca/privacy.htm.)related to their complaint about (alleged) inadequate consent against the Air Miles program, among other respondents. Most interestingly, they have published the full text of the findings of the Commissioner, which are ususally only released in abbreviated form.

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