Do you have a Clubcard?

[Churchill]

No, you can make your own pot noodles

[BoredBloke]

They offered you £26? They must be great guys, then. Oh dear.

What a stupid comment. You try reclaiming lost airline miles or hotel points it's a nightmare. It sounds like they gave him the cash here without any prompting. I'd say that was pretty good and a small price to pay to make the customer happy. Personally I don't care if they know what I buy from their store - as was pointed out before, if that means they will send me discounts on things I want then that is a good thing.

As a plan B, I'm going to produce a shielded club card holder. Imagine that as their systems simply see their customers pop up at the till and then vanish again.

[Board Game Geek]

If you've got nothing to hide, then you have nothing to fear.

Me, personally, I have tons of stuff to hide*, and I use a Clubcard, but they haven't fingered me yet.

(I used to do LARP. And I collect Board Games...130 at last count)

[dozer]

i used to work at clientco who would buy this data from tesco and was very interesting what they could track. it was mainly used to see what age groups would buy with what, sizes of product and the combinations of product.

i assume the rfid will track you in the areas of the store. they already have iris tracking technology for mystery shoppers that tracks which shelves and displays are most effective.

forget banking, retail is the new battleground.

[Zippy]

Don't you worry about it.

Put the kettle on, there's a good girl!

You are DimPrawn AICMFP

I spend my Clubcard vouchers on Viz magazine and National Geographic subscriptions. Yes, we are all grown up here

[Fred Bloggs]

To be honest, I think the club card is a pretty good thing. I have a Tesco Platinum credit card/club card that I use to collect air miles. I tell you, they build up very nicely, thank you very much.

[OwlHoot]

.. 3. Your card records that you have bought kosher products. You get an email wishing you a happy Passover. In other words, they keep on file that you are a Jew. ...

Well that's pretty easy to work round - Just buy a small pork pie every now and then, and chuck it away when you get home (or better still, sod all those silly diet superstitions and scoff it).

[OwlHoot]

No I don't. Here's why:

1. Your card records, say, that you haven't bought toothpaste for a while. You get targeted ads for toothpaste, and for private health care and dentistry.

2. The card contains an RFID chip. They know which parts of the shop you visit and how long you spend there.

3. Your card records that you have bought kosher products. You get an email wishing you a happy Passover. In other words, they keep on file that you are a Jew.

4. Your card records are sent to HMRC. If they show you spending an amount that seems excessive for the taxable income that you have declared, you will be investigated.

5. The card records a level of alcohol purchases that is seen as being too high. Some medical treatment will not be available to you on the NHS.

Even if half of those points are wrong, what people here seem to overlook is that they *could* all easily become true.

For example, I'm sure supermarkets would love to track people round the store to see what interests them most, and I think some plan to try (or already have) face recognition software on their closed circuit TVs to at least time individuals in various aisles, even if they can't (yet) identify them.

Also, Sainsury's already don't allow loyalty points on tobacco products, which shows they're eager to cooperate with stalinist Government health policies (to make it easier to get planning permission for new stores no doubt). So who's to say they wouldn't provide information on tobacco and alcohol purchases if the Government asked?

[Peoplesoft bloke]

Nope. All these things are already in place except the judgement on alcohol buying AFAIK. The kosher = jew was reported in April, though admittedly I only have a Daily Mail link for it (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/ar...Im-Jewish.html). I am not a jew BTW but I do get the point. BTW "they" who keep the data are the loyalty card company, sorry if that wasn't rather obvious.

The data passes to HMRC should TBH not surprise anybody. It was reported earlier this year that a woman who regularly shopped for several elderly neighbours was investigated because she was buying more thsn her income would suggest possible.

What makes you come out with the offensive accusations of lunacy etc? Is it the technology that you find to be literally incredible, or the surveillance application of it? Because frankly I find it rather worrying that seemingly intelligent people think that this can not possibly be serious. Really.

Right - the link is about Ocado, not Tescos.

Where is your link to the HMRC story please?

[Board Game Geek]

If the store could use facial recognition and tracking to follow my movements, in order to predict what I was looking for, and make my life simpler by arranging the items I want so that I can find them every time, then I'm all for it.

I'm sick of playing the weekly "Which aisle has this moved to ?" game, and wandering around desperately trying to find the products I want.

Aha you cry, that's part of their policy, to keep you wandering around the store and entice you for longer with more impluse purchases.

That's all well and good, but when you have MS, and every fricking step is painful, it just extends my sodding agony.