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News from the USA's State of Washington via komonews.com!
The friendly government folks in King County, Washington, have been caught buying data on local shoppers and mining it to find the home addresses of freeloading scallywags who are likely to own a pet without also having purchased a matching permission slip.
This is one small example of how the big nose of government can end up in unpleasant, uncomfortable places when it is let off its leash. It is also an illustration of how any entity can target and locate people of specific demographics via purchase and exploitation of "private" bulk data derived from common customers' commerce.
I have a strong preference to use only cash for in-person transactions and refuse the use of so-called loyalty or discount cards, which should make such data mining much more difficult, particularly as the numbers of like-minded folks increase.
(Score: 1) by gmrath on Saturday November 05 2016, @11:51PM
I'll bet this is only the tip of the iceberg. No doubt many other municipalities would be more than willing to do this if they are not already doing it. Of course, many businesses would also be more than willing to further "monetize" their horde of customer data too.