NoSSN - Retail Privacy News: Top Secret Edition

News:
+ Bush's 2004 budget contains funds to purchase grocery records
+ AP spreads CASPIAN message across U.S.; witness spin in action
+ Michael Moore takes scissors to audience "loyalty" cards
+ Want to sell your old grocery cards?
+ Britain's Tesco hands out birth control to underage Britons
+ Prince William a misguided Tesco cardholder

Commentary, letters:
+ Card stores floundering, but it's not the economy
+ A typical shopper leaves the "Big Three" for Wal-Mart, Target
+ Best Buy maintains purchase records on credit card holder's spouse

Humor:
+ New! Personal, sensitive member data revealed here each week!
[Attention Supermarket executives: please don't read this]

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BUSH'S 2004 BUDGET CONTAINS FUNDS TO PURCHASE GROCERY RECORDS
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Bush's 2004 budget contains $5.4 million dollars to buy "'real time'
data, such as that collected by scanners at supermarket checkout
counters" for the Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis.
The data purchase is designed to "improve the accuracy of such figures
as the gross domestic product." It is unclear whether the records
purchased will include personally identifying customer data.

The Commerce Department data grab may be just an appetizer for the
federal government, which could find bulging supermarket databases a
tempting target for exploitation. CASPIAN recommends that consumers pay
cash for retail purchases and boycott stores that collect data on
customers.

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AP ARTICLE CONVEYS CASPIAN'S MESSAGE; WITNESS SPIN IN ACTION
=========================================================================

CASPIAN's consumer education message, "cards are data collection
devices, not savings devices," was spotlighted around the country
through an AP article that came out last weekend. In a fascinating
demonstration of media "spin," the headline of the story changed from
paper to paper. Though the story run in each paper was IDENTICAL, the
modified headlines reveal the editorial position of each paper.

Where you see a "pro-card" view reflected in the headline, you can bet
grocery advertising dollars played a role.

The story was originally submitted as:
"Loyalty cards mean profits for stores, privacy questions for consumers"
ANNE D'INNOCENZIO, AP Business Writer, March 21, 2003

======================
It was reprinted under a variety of headlines as follows:

TITLE LEFT IN ORIGINAL FORM:
"Loyalty cards mean profits for stores, privacy questions for consumers"
- South Bend Tribune, IN
- San Francisco Chronicle, CA
- Jefferson City News Tribune, MO

TITLE ONLY SLIGHTLY VARIED:
- Loyalty cards mean profits, privacy issues
Dayton Daily News, OH
- Loyalty cards ring up profit, privacy concerns
Baltimore Sun, MD
- Loyalty cards bring profits to stores, confidentiality questions ...
Topeka Capital Journal, KS
- Loyalty cards raise profits - - and privacy concerns
Florida Today, FL

TITLE SLANTED PRO-PRIVACY:
- Loyalty cards raise privacy questions
Macomb Daily, MI
- Drawbacks of dedication: Loyalty cards mean store profits, ...
Milford Daily News, MA
- Personal Finance: Loyalty cards raise questions for consumers
Daily Oklahoman, OK
- Consumer officials question loyalty cards
Bedford Times Mail, IN

TITLE SLANTED TO BUSINESS CONCERNS:
- Stores benefit from loyalty cards
Chicago Sun Times, IL
- Loyalty cards help retailers hone strategy
Boston Globe, MA
- Loyalty cards pay off for stores
San Jose Mercury News, CA

TITLE SLANTED TO MENTION CARD "SAVINGS" OR "BENEFITS"
(Especially noteworthy because the original title emphasized store
profits and made no mention of "savings" or "service")

- Grocers Say Loyalty Cards Paying Off for Customers
Salt Lake Tribune, UT
- Getting carded brings better service for customers
Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel, FL
- Stores' cards ring up savings, privacy issues
Louisville Courier Journal, KY
- Privacy Vs. Service
Lakeland Ledger, FL

A FEW OTHER VARIATIONS
- Loyalty cards divide consumers
Indianapolis Star, IN
- Retailers â€™ loyalty cards gain ground
Canton Repository, OH

The moral to this story?
Spin is everwhere. Take what you read with a grain of salt.

A second, widely reprinted AP article provided consumers with CASPIAN
tips to protect their privacy:

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MICHAEL MOORE TAKES SCISSORS TO AUDIENCE GROCERY CARDS
=========================================================================

"The estimable US satirist Michael Moore ended his recent London stage
show in unforgettable style. Berating we Brits for a commercial ruse
even the Americans have yet to countenance, he invited everyone in the
audience to surrender their loyalty cards. 'Give them up,' he boomed, as
ushers circulated with giant nets. 'And repeat after me: I am loyal to
myself. I am loyal to my community. I am not loyal to corporations.' As
this mass incantation reached a crescendo, Moore revealed a pair of
scissors with blades like scimitars, and, in a flurry of steel, slashed
a thousand loyalty cards in two. It was a cathartic experience."

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GOT ANY GROCERY CARDS YOU WANT TO SELL?
=========================================================================

There is a collector for everything - including grocery cards.
Below is a link to a website run by someone willing to pay good money
for your old grocery store cards.

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TESCO HANDS OUT FREE BIRTH CONTROL TO UNDERAGE BRITONS
=========================================================================

Tesco, one of Britain's largest supermarket chains, has gone beyond
meddling in its shoppers' private lives through their purchase records.
Now the company wants to play a role in their reproductive lives as
well. Tesco announced last week that it will distribute morning-after
contraceptive pills free of charge to girls under 20 at two western
England locations. The British National Health Service is collaborating
with Tesco on the pilot project, which will also give teens advice on
contraception and sexual health.

=========================================================================
PRINCE WILLIAM A MISGUIDED TESCO CARDHOLDER
=========================================================================

Prince William, the 20-year-old future heir to the British throne -
whose personal fortune stands at around $22 million - uses his Tesco
Clubcard to "earn" 1p back for every pound he spends. A royal insider
said last night: 'He was chatting the other day and laughing about how
he has more points than some of his friends.'"

Someone needs to set the lad straight. If anybody in the world should
understand the value of keeping details of one's private life out of the
hands of unethical strangers, it should be Princess Diana's son. We're
sure Prince Charles would cut up the younger prince's cards for him if
he knew the real story behind them.

=========================================================================
BEST BUY MAINTAINS PURCHASE RECORDS ON SPOUSE AS WELL AS CARDHOLDER
=========================================================================

A member letter raises questions about data collection practices at Best
Buy and reinforces the importance of making purchases in cash.

I haven't explored your site in some time. I don't know whether you have
info on Best Buy retail electronics. I know it isn't a Supermarket, and
I know they don't use shopper cards, but on a recent inquiry to their
customer service number, I learned they have a database on me by my
checking visa account.

I had a Best Buy Credit card, and had paid it off, but they were able to
tell me that between my purchases and those of my husbands (who was
never named on the BB credit card), I have spent $17,000 on and off(on
our checkcards) their credit card in the past 7 years. That's right.
They cross referenced my purchases (and my husband's) on and off their
credit card, including everything I spent except in cash.

When I had called, they kept asking for my phone number. I told them I
no longer had the BB credit card. They finally asked for my visa
checking number and revealed the database they maintained WITHOUT my
consent or knowledge. I no longer shop there. Just wanted to share the
info....

=========================================================================
COMMENTARY: CARD STORES FLOUNDERING, BUT IT'S NOT THE ECONOMY
=========================================================================

Card-hating shoppers rejoice: Cosmic justice is repaying the companies
that have made food purchase tracking the norm in America. The nation's
three largest grocery chains, Albertsons, Kroger, and Safeway (all of
which have imposed strict purchase-tracking card requirements on their
customers), are taking a well-deserved financial beating.

Albertsons' most recent bad news includes a 29% drop in fourth-quarter
net income, a 2.5% drop in sales, a dwindling customer base, and reduced
gross margins -- due, in part, to "aggressive promotion costs." (Gee,
I wonder what they're spending their money on? Could it be those
recent, high-priced card program rollouts? Or maybe the GPS
customer-tracking system they're developing?)

Albertsons' stock has plummeted a satisfying 40% since the company first
reneged on its "no cards, no hassles" promise in November 2001. Before
imposing the much-hated "Preferred Customer Card" on Dallas-Fort Worth
shoppers, Albertsons' stock had been trading at $32. Now it's scraping
bottom at around $18.
(For a graph of Albertsons' steady downward trend see:
http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=abs&d=1y)

Meanwhile, Kroger's stock is down 46% and Safeway's has lost a whopping
57% of its value over the same period. It's clear these stores have
become almost insufferable to many of their (former) customers, who are
leaving in droves to lower-priced and card-free alternatives.

The big three have taken a heavy-handed response to the lost revenue,
squeezing their remaining customers with steadily increasing prices and
almost fanatical insistence on
purchase-tracking-and-price-manipulation-cards which allow them to
fleece the estimated 10% of shoppers who don't use the card. (Whatever
you do, gentle reader, never pay a non-card price at a card store.)

Though the grocery industry likes to blame the poor economy for its
dismal performance, common sense says that food is a pretty
recession-proof commodity. (You either buy it or you starve, regardless
of the economy.) But let's accept for a moment Albertsons' premise
that Americans are tightening their belts and scaling back non-essential
grocery spending, providing one explanation for why shoppers are moving
en masse to Wal-Mart: they're being forced by economic necessity to
subsist on discounted gruel and beans. By that logic, of course, the
most expensive, high-end grocers should be nearly bankrupt by now.

And that's where Albertsons' economic explanation falls apart. Whole
Foods, a chain specializing in trendy, high-priced gourmet and organic
foods, is attracting plenty of new customers and making money hand over
fist -- despite the same "poor economy" that is supposedly driving
shoppers away from high priced items at the big three card stores.

The difference is that Whole Foods has a card-free, customer-friendly
approach which leaves shoppers feeling catered to and respected as
intelligent adults. Shoppers trust Whole Foods to be ethical (perhaps
because the product mix leans that way), and they don't mind paying a
bit more to shop for products they believe in at a store they trust.

In contrast, Albertsons, Kroger, and Safeway's scheming and deceptive
practices permeate their stores with bad vibes and leave their customers
feeling fleeced, exploited, and manipulated. I get a case of the
creeps just thinking about these stores: Kroger with its biometric
fingerprint payment system, Safeway with its spies writing down license
numbers from other store's parking lots, Albertsons installing GPS
systems to track unsuspecting shoppers as they move around the store.
Yecch! Who would choose to shop at stores like these? And then pay
higher prices to boot? No wonder their customers are leaving in droves.

Are you listening, Big Three? You could learn something from Whole
Foods, whose stock has soared 30% in value over the same period that
your stocks have tanked to unprecedented lows. Is it the economy? No,
it's the cards, and everything ugly about the grocery industry that they
-- and now by extension, you -- have come to represent.

=========================================================================
ANOTHER SHOPPER LEAVES THE "BIG THREE"
=========================================================================

Every day shoppers write to tell us why they have left the card chains
for Wal-Mart. Of course, we are no fans of either Wal-Mart or Target
(they are both up to their ears in RFID product tracking plans) but we
can relate to the sentiment that drove this shopper away.

My family and I moved from San Antonio to the Dallas Ft. Worth area 9
months ago. We have 3 grocery stores within a 5 mile radius;
Albertson's, Kroger and Tom Thumb [owned by Safeway]. All three have the
so called "discount card", "super saver card", or "preferred customer"
card. None of these grocers can compare with the [card-free] HEB grocery
store in the San Antonio area, as far as prices go. Even with the
"savings card", most of their prices still aren't as low as HEB's.
Another aggravation to me is having to bother with these "cards"; ie:
keeping track of which one goes to which store, coming off of my
keychain several times, and losing them. And for a side note: I've
purchased meat several times at Kroger's only to return it, because it
had a "funny smell". I soon resolved the problem however, now I only
shop at Wal-Mart or Target.

=========================================================================
NEW! PERSONAL, SENSITIVE MEMBER DATA REVEALED HERE EACH WEEK!
SUPERMARKET EXECUTIVES: PLEASE DON'T READ THIS (As if you'd listen)
=========================================================================

Albertsons, Kroger, and Safeway have thrown tens of thousands of
customer complaint letters into the trash can unread (at least it seems
that way, based on their lack of responsiveness) so we thought we'd try
a different tack.

Knowing how those guys prefer to get their information on the sly --
through deceptive cards, spy cameras, cloak and dagger parking lot
stakeouts, DMV records, hidden radio transmitters, and (not least)
lurking on our mailing list, we thought we'd get their attention by
creating a secret, members only section of the newsletter where we post
"secrets.".

In doing so, we're drawing on a cutting edge CRM or "customer
relationship management" (i.e., data snooping) insight: the more
sensitive the data and the less you want the hacks at your supermarket
knowing it, they harder they'll work to get it!

So if you are a shopper who feels like the Big Three (or any card
stores) have not listened to you in the past, use a little reverse
psychology. Drop us a line marked "Message for the supermarkets" with
whatever message you'd most like the data snoops to read. We'll post
your PRIVATE comments here in the PERSONAL, SENSITIVE MEMBER DATA area
and let nature do the rest.

CRM specialists will be attracted like flies to flypaper at the prospect
of reading sensitive, personal data on CASPIAN members. They are sure
to carefully analyze, catalog, and scrutinize your every word, provided
we can keep them believing you really DON'T want them to read your
message. Got it?

(Fringe benefit: If you're lucky, the supermarkets may even record the
data from your letter without your knowledge or permission, and sell it
to telemarketers, your health insurance company, the UN, the FBI, the
Commerce Department, John Poindexter, or your ex-spouse's attorney --
then you can tell them all to take a hike!)

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VOLUNTEER PROJECT MANAGERS NEEDED
=========================================================================

CASPIAN needs experienced project managers to work with our staff and
members on a variety of projects, ranging from web development and MySQL
Database implementation to pro-privacy supermarket outreach and legal
research. Help us put our hundreds of enthusiastic and talented
volunteers to work!

If you are interested in heading up a volunteer team, write to CASPIAN
director Katherine Albrecht <kma@nocards.org>.
Please include your city, daytime phone number and a description of your
project management interest and experience.

CASPIAN - Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering
A national consumer organization opposing supermarket "loyalty" cards
and other retail surveillance schemes since 1999

To subscribe or unsubscribe to the CASPIAN mailing list, click the
following link or cut and paste it into your browser:

If you have difficulty with the web-based interface, you may also
subscribe or unsubscribe via email by writing to:

"The time is now near at hand which must probably determine whether Americans are to be free men or slaves, whether they are to have any
property they can call their own, whether their houses and farms are to be pillaged and destroyed and themselves confined to a state of wretchedness from which no human efforts will deliver them. The fate of unborn millions will now depend, under God, on the courage of this army. Our cruel and unrelenting enemy leaves us only the choice of brave resistance or the most abject submission. We have, therefore, to resolve to conquer or die." -- George Washington

DISCLAIMER: The data on this website is the collaborative experience, contributions, and research of various websites, legal books, tax documents, researchers, associates, attorneys, CPA's, etc. and does not constitute legal advice. The primary purpose of this site is education. We do not advocate any specific course of action. What you do with this information and any course of action you decide to take, if any, is entirely your responsibility.

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