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no - the analysis is done on receipts, not just total products sold. They don't care what you bought, they care to know that people who buy diapers also buy wip

no - the analysis is done on receipts, not just total products sold. They don't care what you bought, they care to know that people who buy diapers also buy wipes, and people who buy soy milk don't buy butter, etc. The analysis of anonymous receipts still yields very interesting and actionable results in aggregate. Your privacy has nothing to do with how a company analyzes its sales data as long as they don't include your identity and drill down into analyzing your receipt alone.

hdjjhhvvhga 5y ago
Yes, I understand that they see patterns and trends and a lot of valuable data: my point is that they have no way of tracking shopping habits of any individual purchaser unless they trick them into some loyalty program, coupons etc.
- abakker 5y ago
  I think we agree. If the average search advertiser gave me the same benefits that some loyalty programs do, I'd feel a lot better about them. I.e. if I got points for the data I provided in my browsing habits that translated into actual dollars, I'd be game to let them have it. If I wanted to "not swipe my loyalty card for this purchase" to leave it out of my history, I'd appreciate the granular control. The issue with all the tracking is that most consumers have no choice, no functional UI to interact with the tracking systems, and no clear idea of who they are ultimately transacting with.
- afiori 5y ago
  As a nitpick: "unless they trick enough customers in a loyalty program or something". With enough good data (so probably not in all sectors) you can also identify people out of the system. There are not that many bits of entropy in (contextualized) human behavior.
  - tremon 5y ago
    With enough good data (so probably not in all sectors) you can also identify people out of the system. Sure, it's technically possible. But if you would actually do that, you run afoul of the GDPR requirements for informed consent: retroactively identifying people in a dataset requires the same consent as targeted data hoovering, so if an individual has only consented to being included in anonymized statistics that practice is sure to get flagged down as unlawful.
    - hdjjhhvvhga 5y ago
      Yes, that's definitely possible, but humans being human I doubt it can be 100% foolproof. If I go to the grocery store every Saturday at 11am and purchase a similar set of items, you can probably single me out and assign some UID to me. However, if I unexpectedly pop in Wednesday evening to just buy a bottle of wine, it would be difficult to assign the purchase to the same UID.

hdjjhhvvhga 5y ago

Yes, I understand that they see patterns and trends and a lot of valuable data: my point is that they have no way of tracking shopping habits of any individual purchaser unless they trick them into some loyalty program, coupons etc.

abakker 5y ago
I think we agree. If the average search advertiser gave me the same benefits that some loyalty programs do, I'd feel a lot better about them. I.e. if I got points for the data I provided in my browsing habits that translated into actual dollars, I'd be game to let them have it. If I wanted to "not swipe my loyalty card for this purchase" to leave it out of my history, I'd appreciate the granular control. The issue with all the tracking is that most consumers have no choice, no functional UI to interact with the tracking systems, and no clear idea of who they are ultimately transacting with.
afiori 5y ago
As a nitpick: "unless they trick enough customers in a loyalty program or something". With enough good data (so probably not in all sectors) you can also identify people out of the system. There are not that many bits of entropy in (contextualized) human behavior.
- tremon 5y ago
  With enough good data (so probably not in all sectors) you can also identify people out of the system. Sure, it's technically possible. But if you would actually do that, you run afoul of the GDPR requirements for informed consent: retroactively identifying people in a dataset requires the same consent as targeted data hoovering, so if an individual has only consented to being included in anonymized statistics that practice is sure to get flagged down as unlawful.
  - hdjjhhvvhga 5y ago
    Yes, that's definitely possible, but humans being human I doubt it can be 100% foolproof. If I go to the grocery store every Saturday at 11am and purchase a similar set of items, you can probably single me out and assign some UID to me. However, if I unexpectedly pop in Wednesday evening to just buy a bottle of wine, it would be difficult to assign the purchase to the same UID.