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The best thing about credit cards in the U.S. is the amount of transactional data credit card companies are able to sell to anyone with a dollar. Your credit r

The best thing about credit cards in the U.S. is the amount of transactional data credit card companies are able to sell to anyone with a dollar. Your credit reward system comes at the cost of half of the world's businesses and the government knowing every single thing on your shopping list last week.

paulie_a 8y ago
That is not how credit card processing works. Some companies store additional data on a store by store basis, but visa/MasterCard does not transmit that info. They deal with a lot of data, but it's transactional. To make the transaction happen. So no they can't sell your shopping list, the system simply doesn't work that way. Terminals don't send that info.
- kakarot 8y ago
  In-store reward systems aggregate purchases under a common identifier, and chain stores will also attempt to cross-reference purchases and create identifiers for non-members through credit and debit cards. Even when individual items cannot be attained, these systems still can reveal a lot just through the purchase summaries. Store location, type of purchase, etc. All of this data ends up in the hands of tons of financial companies. Stores don't have to directly give up this data to competitors. The information market is simply too big and unregulated. Cash is the only way to circumvent this process until we have anonymous credit systems.
  - paulie_a 8y ago
    Yes in store reward systems are completely different than credit card and debit card companies. I work in that industry and look at the raw data. You are definitely incorrect about how the various levels of a transaction works and how the various companies collect pieces of relevant information. Information is definitely collected but please don't spread misinformation. Your above sumnary is completely misguided to how it actually works.
    - kakarot 8y ago
      Specifically, what am I wrong about? Always interested to improve my understanding of how this complex network of data trading works.
- ac29 8y ago
  There certainly is a mechanism to send significantly more data, though I don't know how common it is: https://dharmamerchantservices.com/faq/what-is-level-2-and-level-3-data/ https://dharmamerchantservices.com/faq/what-is-level-2-and-l...

paulie_a 8y ago

That is not how credit card processing works. Some companies store additional data on a store by store basis, but visa/MasterCard does not transmit that info. They deal with a lot of data, but it's transactional. To make the transaction happen. So no they can't sell your shopping list, the system simply doesn't work that way. Terminals don't send that info.

kakarot 8y ago
In-store reward systems aggregate purchases under a common identifier, and chain stores will also attempt to cross-reference purchases and create identifiers for non-members through credit and debit cards. Even when individual items cannot be attained, these systems still can reveal a lot just through the purchase summaries. Store location, type of purchase, etc. All of this data ends up in the hands of tons of financial companies. Stores don't have to directly give up this data to competitors. The information market is simply too big and unregulated. Cash is the only way to circumvent this process until we have anonymous credit systems.
- paulie_a 8y ago
  Yes in store reward systems are completely different than credit card and debit card companies. I work in that industry and look at the raw data. You are definitely incorrect about how the various levels of a transaction works and how the various companies collect pieces of relevant information. Information is definitely collected but please don't spread misinformation. Your above sumnary is completely misguided to how it actually works.
  - kakarot 8y ago
    Specifically, what am I wrong about? Always interested to improve my understanding of how this complex network of data trading works.
ac29 8y ago
There certainly is a mechanism to send significantly more data, though I don't know how common it is: https://dharmamerchantservices.com/faq/what-is-level-2-and-level-3-data/ https://dharmamerchantservices.com/faq/what-is-level-2-and-l...