Government wants access to supermarket loyalty card data... "It's for your own good".

[denny]

Two articles just out on this...

The first: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/12/05/ntesco05.xml&sSheet=/news/2003/12/05/ixhome.html
"The MPs suggested that loyalty cards could be used to identify customers who bought excessive amounts of foods high in fat, sugar and salt, and asked whether supermarkets could use this information to promote healthier alternatives to these customers."

The second: http://media.guardian.co.uk/advertising/story/0,7492,1099981,00.html
"David Hinchliffe, the MP who was instrumental in securing a ban on tobacco advertising earlier this year, suggested supermarkets' loyalty cards could be used to monitor eating habits."

(spotted on Politech)

Comments

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure there'd be much of a profit in it for supermarkets to try to encourage people who buy unhealthy, expensive pre-prep foods to switch to lower-fat or lower-salt foods

That's a very good point. It's kind of sad that the most likely thing to defeat this kind of government invasion of privacy is a pragmatic money motive, but hey - whatever works :)