Data Banks Strip Privacy, ACLU Says
In the not-too-distant future, government welfare agencies might be able to peruse commercial data banks to make sure that clients are buying nutritious foods at the grocery store.
And pizza parlors might use the same lists--generated by “frequent shopper programs” currently being tested nationwide--to send discount coupons to people who buy frozen pizzas.
Both concepts make Janlori Goldman shudder.
Goldman, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union’s privacy issues committee, fears that people who sign up for the grocery store frequent buyer programs, that make the collection of such detailed data possible, “won’t know how the information about them is going to be used, or who will be using it.”
The ACLU maintains that the program should spell out how data on a person’s buying habits will be used. For example, if a customer buys broccoli, that information should not be given to a company marketing vegetable slicers without that customer’s consent, Goldman said.
Most grocery chains, as well as the program vendors and even a few consumer groups, contend there is no invasion of privacy because the frequent shopper programs are voluntary and there is a general disclosure that the data might be used for marketing.
But critics, including Goldman, say the wording is too broad.
“Individuals are losing control of incredible amounts of information about themselves, and that is something to worry about,” she said.
“The first principle of privacy is that information collected for one purpose should not be used for another purpose without your consent.”
The cumulative effect of such programs, critics contend, is to strip away the veil of privacy that individuals are accustomed to in public places. Computers and scanners give retailers the power to monitor consumers’ buying decisions as surely as if they were being filmed by hidden cameras.
WHAT THEY ALREADY KNOW Information about individuals that is readily available to direct marketing organizations includes: Marital status. Name of spouse. Number of children, if any. Ages of family members. Ethnic origin. Education. Annual income. Occupation. Home ownership. Type of dwelling: condo, single family, apartment. Number of rooms. Purchase price of home. Amount of mortgage or rent payments. Length of residence. Number and type of cars owned. Magazine and newspaper subscriptions. Number and type of credit cards used. Credit history. Types of insurance carried. Electrical appliance ownership. Cable television subscriptions.
