Michael In the newspaper "New York Times," there was recently an interesting article. Article about customer research at the department store chainTarget Since Americans often pay with credit cards, Target knows which products customers purchase over long periods and can draw conclusions about their living conditions. For example, if a woman suddenly buys a lot more unscented lotion and cotton balls, according to the mathematicians at Target, there is an 80% chance that she is pregnant.
To encourage the customer to buy more baby products at Target and less from competitors, the company sends her coupon booklets in this case, promoting discounted baby products. The marketing strategists admitted that the original strategy of filling personalized advertising booklets for each household with baby products for pregnant women disturbed customers concerned about their privacy. Nowadays, they intentionally add some unrelated products like wine glasses or lawnmowers so that the recipients do not feel spied upon.
It goes even further: When Target combines its customers' personal purchase data with externally purchased information such as age, estimated income, or marital status, entirely new conclusions can be drawn, allowing for targeted advertising and driving store traffic.
Many Americans do not know this, and even if they did, they would not attach much importance to data collection. The general public lacks an understanding of the dangers of data misuse, and therefore, there is no significant lobby for data protection that could push through relevant regulations by law.