Big Brother's supermarket?
It is, of course, in the name of a good cause. An article in the Guardian, that I came across pretty much by luck, tells us of an attempt to improve the eating habits of British citizens, starting with monitoring what foods people buy via their supermarket membership cards:
David Hinchliffe, the MP who was instrumental in securing a ban on tobacco advertising earlier this year, suggested supermarkets' loyalty cards could be used to monitor eating habits.
"You have enormous power with these," he said, holding up a Sainsbury's Nectar card. "Perhaps there is a use for these to steer people, in some respects, towards more healthy products."
Mr North admitted the information gathered through loyalty cards could be used to influence customers but said it could alienate them if they felt they were being patronised.
"We do have a club card. Can it be used as a way of understanding customers? Yes, absolutely. Can it be used to point out new opportunities to customers? Yes it can but underlying that is the question of how it's done," he said.
Maybe it's a question of character. There are those who will see devious purposes in collecting information in this way, while other will see little more than good intentions. Yet others will claim (and I suppose that I'm among these) that good intentions can too easily be led astray. But even more than that, what we have here is an example of how our databased society causes us to be constantly aware of the fact that data can, and will, be used beyond its original intent. That's neither a good or a bad thing. It simply is.
Go to: I can't possibly be comprehensive here, or
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