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Are companies invading the consumers’ privacy?

"I always feel like somebody’s watching me"

Did you know that every time you shop at a certain supermarket a profile is being built on your shopping habits and this information or data on all consumers is collected and sold to other organisations in order for them to sell their products to you? After you bought and paid for your goods at your local supermarket have you been asked ‘Would you like a Club card, Voucher card, Nectar card or a Shopping Bonus card?’ (I made the last one up) While you may see this as a good way to save money by getting discounts thus more for your money, don’t ever think this comes without a cost. In fact accepting such cards is simply the start of these companies building a profile on you!

The information they get from your shopping habits such as your likes and dislikes, the last time you shopped at a branch as well as how often you shop can give these Supermarkets vital information about you which will dictate to them how and when to market their products to you. Supermarket chains profiling their customers have been going on for a while and this could be the reason why their growth trends are so impressive.

To be quite honest I feel as though these large companies will try to get our information at any cost. Even when you shop online, a few hours later you will start getting emails selling you items that they believe you would like. For example I was online after midnight and received an email selling me sleeping pills! Can you believe how slick these companies are getting? Which leads me to the next point if you haven’t got one already, you need to get an antivirus software for your personal computer as there are computer viruses that track your movements on the web and will try to sell you items based on the sites you visit. Another example is when I went to see what cars are on sale and 2 seconds later I received an email selling me the car I was looking at on the website!

For some reason I treat what these club cards essentially do, no different than viruses that track your online movements and try to sell you their products.

I believe some of these organisations are treading a fine line between marketing and invading our privacy.

If you feel that a company breaks the Data Protection Act you can complain following this link http://www.ico.gov.uk/complaints.aspx

I was reading an article in the guardian which shows you how to get your personal information under the data protection act.

To learn how to get your personal information under the Data Protection Act, see: http://www.ico.gov.uk/Global/faqs/data_protection_for_the_public.aspx

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