Recently Google’s new user agreements are released, which changed Google’s privacy setting. The public has made a big deal about this and many other tech problems of privacy and tracking your location, but the public has seemed to miss the idea that your local stores like Target are tracking you by your purchases.
An article in Forbes.com How Target Figured Out A Teen Girl Was Pregnant Before Her Father Did, brings forth how Target tracks a person based on their purchases. The article states that when a customer at target uses their credit card they are assigned a number in their computer system and whenever you buy anything with that same credit card at target those purchase are added to your customer history. Target can take this date and provide ads and coupons especially for you based on what you have bought in the past.
In the Forbes article Target was able to prove that the teen age girl was pregnant based on her purchase and was able to predict when she was due. This article demonstrates how much information a store knows about their customers all based on purchases.
Recently consumers have been up in arms about apple and location tracking, Facebook and privacy setting, and Google’s recent user agreement changes. But it seems that many people forget how much information the stores they shop at all the time knows about them. Next time you slide your card remember that you are being tracked, just like the apps and web services you are up in arms about.
