The grocery store sells everything I buy to who, and is that information personally identifying? This seems insane that me buying a brand of toothpaste could be fed back into Google for more surveillance, but here we are.
Yep. That's why "loyalty cards" exist. Since they're not allowed to associate your purchases (or really any data) with your CC number to build a profile they give you a separate ID number that you key-in/scan when you buy things.
"Oh but you don't have to use your loyalty card."
Technically true but it's not "get a discount if you use your loyalty card" it's now "pay really inflated prices if you don't."
For what it's worth, I know people share loyalty cards across large groups to mess this up. Me, I just eat the cost. Developing a "I will not play your games" has been great. I know people who absolutely obsess over gamified consumption (e.g., airline miles) and I'm glad to have the brain space for things that matter.
I have to say I think loyalty cards are a distraction, why can’t they just track my via my card info/Apple Pay? I mean the thing is literally a kind of unique identifier...
