this post was submitted on 24 Sep 2025
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Grocery store discount cards have been paying people for their data for a long time. I guess it's not money being deposited into people's bank accounts, but the discounts people get from using those cards is compensating people for their data. A lot of credit cards have points and rewards for the same reason. They aren't giving out discounts and rewards because they're nice people, they do that so you'll sign an agreement to allow them to sell your data.
It just seems to be accepted by everyone that pretty much every purchase using a card is tracked and the data sold to various marketing scumbags. The only time people get bothered by it is if their own government purchases that data... data which is being sold on an open market to scumbags around the world.
I'd say it's the other way around - you're paying extra for not consenting to tracking, so it's similar (and even worse) model that i.e Facebook has. There's no way the discount card discount is not factored in the normal price calculation, and I vager most shops are counting on the product not being sold for a bit until it's it's turn for a discount.
Whether you are paying extra if you don't use a discount card or you're paying less if you do use the discount card, either way you look at it, there's more money in your pocket if you walk out of the grocery store after using a discount card. So you have money by handing over data to whoever the store is selling it to.
Why would you think of using a card (taking an action) as the default, as opposed to not using a card (no action) as the default?