ipl-logo

The Ethicality Of Grocery Store Discount Cards

844 Words4 Pages

The debate behind the truth of grocery store discount cards and the real value of consumers who accepted MVP or banks cards continued since the concept has first been initiated. Is the consumer with discount cards, saving money or associated with an information collection scheme? Many advocacy groups around the world warn citizens that these types of programs are an invasion of privacy because the real purpose is to track what consumers are buying and spending. Do you want your grocery store to know what you drink or eat? The consumers should be aware of the consequences and the results of their actions each time they sign up for programs that can track personal spending’s. Therefore, the hidden motives of grocery store discount cards are ethical …show more content…

Discount cards include MVP cards or bank cards that could hack a user’s information and steal their freedom. In addition, privacy advocates have studied that the wealth of data is collected from supermarkets via electronic shopper cards. The information could be linked with other biometric technology to form in depth personal databases without a person’s permission or knowledge. For example, Food-store chains that employ e-cards as a savings benefit to shoppers may actually be inflating regular prices before applying shopper card discounts, thus negating any real savings. Katherine Albrecht, executive director of Consumers against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering, stated, “Some of the more obvious short-term privacy concerns are that the information is subpoenaed and used against people in court” (1). The public should be concerned about how foolproof the technology could be as well as the implications of false positives and negatives created by a …show more content…

For example, this situation enables the store manager to determine the percentage of the consumers who buy steaks. The only problem that store managers could not determine without the card is the identity of the person who bought these items. Matching check and credit card numbers could determine the identity of the person. Furthermore, what difference does this issue create if a young bachelor consumer purchased a gallon of milk or by his grandmother, as long as it is

More about The Ethicality Of Grocery Store Discount Cards

    Open Document