boots advantage card

dragonsoup

Sorry link picked up an extra http:// somehow


http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,3605,999866,00.html

Princessa_2

dragonsoup wrote:

Sorry link picked up an extra http:// somehow


http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,3605,999866,00.html

sorry should have picked up on that myself but didn't!

albalad

dragonsoup wrote:

. Data profiling has moved on and will continue to do so.

dragonsoup , you should read a book called "no place to hide" by robert o'hara really quite terrifying how quickly and how deeply this is all happening !:eek:

or even have a look here

hula-hoops

But so what if Boots know which tampons I buy, whether I have piles or not and how many condoms I need a month? I walk around the store and queue for the till with all my items in a wire basket that the whole store can see anyway. I'm a normal person. So what if I get indigestion from time to time and people see my buying a remedy for it? It's hardly a crime or anything to be ashamed of. An advantage card doesn't tell them anything I or people around me don't already know.

dragonsoup

hula-hoops wrote:

But so what if Boots know which tampons I buy, whether I have piles or not and how many condoms I need a month? I walk around the store and queue for the till with all my items in a wire basket that the whole store can see anyway. I'm a normal person. So what if I get indigestion from time to time and people see my buying a remedy for it? It's hardly a crime or anything to be ashamed of. An advantage card doesn't tell them anything I or people around me don't already know.

I think you are missing the point. Boots knows who you are. They have your name and address. You are not an anonymous stranger in the queue to them. With your name and address they can cross link with many other data capture services. If you go to the upmystreet.co.uk website you can enter your postcode and read an abridged version of your Acorn Profile. It is alarmingly accurate for most people and more data is being added daily to these databases.

I was fortunate enough to have access to some of these tools in a previous job role and it really opened my eyes. It is impossible to completely avoid this profiling but I am sure not going to make it easy for them.

calleyw

And of course they can't track you via your credit card/debt cards so they know when and where you used them.

Let alone all the cctv cameras everywhere.

Come on people. I mainly buy fuel from sainsburys and use a nectar card. What does that prove I live off petrol. Or only buy reduced or value lines from them.

I have advantage card and it proves nothing. I don't buy a lot of my personal hygiene items from them. So if they look at my data they will go a 34 year old woman who does not have periods very often. What does that prove nothing apart from the fact that I don't buy those items from them unless on offer.

If you are that paranoid I suggest that you don't go on the electoral register that by the way anyone can look at in the local library. Don't get a mortgage/bank account/credit card/rent a property/driving licence/passport/land line as you can be looked up in the telephone directory/mobile phone etc etc.

Beg and live on the streets and only deal in cash that is the only way that big brother is not watching you.

To me life is to short worry what someone looking at my data from a loyalty card can guess about my life. Nothing because I shop where the best deals are. So my purchases that are made with nectar/advantage card make no sense to them at all as they are random.


Yours


Calley

firespire

The_Bargain_Hunters wrote:

The reason you can't mix points an cash is that they give 4p per pound spent in points more than Tesco's etc and they are only able to do this if it is kept seperate. In other words you would get far less points if you used them to part pay for your shopping

I'm sure they they could programme it to calculate for every pound spent you get 4 points back for every pound not spend and points used you get no points or something. I think the problem lies is that some items are exempt and could cause problems. The 4p is irrelevant, the reason they can give this is they are at least 4p more expensive than Tesco and Superdrug etc.

The_Bargain_Hunters wrote:

there would be no incentive to save them for bigger purchases, also when you do save up and "treat" yourself by redeeming your points it feels more like a freebee and not just something that cost less.

They try to get you to save the points by making it hard to spend them.
Effectively they are storing the point balance which has a cash value, they are earning interest the longer it is stored on there - they want you to keep it on there as long as possible.
Say I have enough to get a free box of tissues (my "treat") - I have to go the difficulty of putting the tissues through separate to the rest of my shopping because if I put my whole shop on in one go I can't get the free tissues as using points as part payment.
Probably few people know this and want to use some of the points but their points don't cover the whole shop just some of thr items - when they ask the cashier they are told they don't have enough points and have to keep collecting.

eclipse

calleyw wrote:

And of course they can't track you via your credit card/debt cards so they know when and where you used them.

Let alone all the cctv cameras everywhere.

Come on people. I mainly buy fuel from sainsburys and use a nectar card. What does that prove I live off petrol. Or only buy reduced or value lines from them.

I have advantage card and it proves nothing. I don't buy a lot of my personal hygiene items from them. So if they look at my data they will go a 34 year old woman who does not have periods very often. What does that prove nothing apart from the fact that I don't buy those items from them unless on offer.

If you are that paranoid I suggest that you don't go on the electoral register that by the way anyone can look at in the local library. Don't get a mortgage/bank account/credit card/rent a property/driving licence/passport/land line as you can be looked up in the telephone directory/mobile phone etc etc.

Beg and live on the streets and only deal in cash that is the only way that big brother is not watching you.

To me life is to short worry what someone looking at my data from a loyalty card can guess about my life. Nothing because I shop where the best deals are. So my purchases that are made with nectar/advantage card make no sense to them at all as they are random.


Yours


Calley

Hear hear. I completely agree and was going to say the same thing, but you said it much better than I could have.

bexxie90

I paid £3.32 points and £2.32 CASH today