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Can shops use payment information when you pay with a debit or credit card to track a customer's buying habits?

In other words can a shopkeeper link different purchases at different times in his shop together if they were done with the same card or payed from the same bank account?

By 'can' I mean both technically and legally. The legal part of course depends on jurisdiction and maybe on the terms of the payment provider, so please include that in your answer where relevant.

I know banks track the payments that are made with a card, I am wondering if shops can do so as well.

JanKanis
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2 Answers2

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I know for a fact that this is happening as I helped implement such a solution for a merchant that has multiple brands.

For the one that I worked on actual credit card numbers were not used, but tokens that represent credit card numbers. Without getting into too much security stuff, it is was a one way thing. A customer's credit card number would always result in the same token, but going the other way was pretty much impossible. Even if the tokens were stolen, they would be useless to thieves.

Most companies implementing these solutions are only interested targeted marketing. For example a restaurant chain might show that the owner of a given credit card ordered vegetarian options for most meals. It would be a waste, and perhaps offensive to send such a customer a coupon for $5 off a steak dinner.

I would also say that most of these companies are interested in protecting their customer's identity and would use a token type method even if they did not risk compliance issues.

ChrisInEdmonton
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Pete B.
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There was a story of a store, Target, that started sending a 16-17 year old girl advertisements geared toward a pregnant woman. The father got upset and talked to the local store manager. Ultimately, she was pregnant. But still, creepy story. They profiled her based on purchases.

(See Ben's comment below, with link to the story. I recalled the anecdote pretty well.)

JoeTaxpayer
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