Out of a reflex of distrust, I refuse to participate in any kind of loyalty program of the outlet of the large retail store around the corner.
I tell myself that by refusing to join the loyalty program (which basically comes down to scanning an anonymous loyalty card every time I make a purchase), I prevent them from adding my correlations (what products I buy, in what combos, at what time) to their data.
But since I normally pay by card, I guess they can (and do) already do that with my bank account information?
If I would pay with cash, they can still see those correlations per purchase, but they can’t track my purchases over time?
The American Prospect has some really good recent articles about this. We’ve entered a new age of personal pricing. Companies have so much data on us that the price that I see when I visit a website is no longer necessarily the price that you see.
https://prospect.org/economy/2024-06-04-one-person-one-price/