Re: Google at the Pump?!

Scott in SoCal wrote:
On Fri, 09 Nov 2007 21:14:43 -0500, "Murderous Speeding Drunken
Distracted Driver (Hector Goldstein)"
<drunk_and_distracted@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Scott in SoCal wrote:
That link doesn't go beyond the cash register.

It does if you pay with a credit card or use the store's
loyalty/discount card. In those cases, every purchase you make is
tracked, even if you don't get a coupon, and the coupons you DO get
may be based on your entire purchase history, not just the items you
are buying today.

PCI compliance would preclude tracking by credit card

What is "PCI," and how would it prevent the grocery stores from doing
what credit card companies already do, i.e. sell your purchase history
to the highest bidder?

PCI stands for Payment Card Industry, and is used to refer to a
specification dictating how data on the 2nd track of a customer's
credit card (CC number, name, address, et al) can be captured, stored,
and utilized from the Point Of Sale to the enterprise.

While initially there wasn't very strong standards regarding
utilization and storage of said information, this has become
increasingly more strict. Indeed, I feel certain that one of the
motivating factors behind the sudden growth in customer loyalty cards
and gift cards is because PCI prevents the utilization of said data
from credit cards, so these "opt in" mechanisms allow retailers to
still, at least partially, track purchases.

I would assume that the reason the credit card companies can resell or
otherwise utilize the track 2 data is because it was their information
to begin with.

only the
loyalty card or some other "opt-in" mechanism could be used for
purchase tracking.

You'll forgive me for being skeptical, but unless there is some sort
of strong privacy law (like HIPAA for medical information) then
there's no way in hell any company that's capable of gathering such
data is not going to mine the hell out of it, aggregate it, and sell
it to anyone willing to pay.

The credit card companies want the systems that interact with theirs
to be PCI complaint, as it does define security much the way HIPAA
does for medical information. While I don't think it's mandatory YET,
it probably won't be long. The credit card companies seem to be
wanting to distance themselves from the stench that arises when some
half-ass development team doesn't properly secure their systems.




--

"Speeders And Drunk Drivers Are MURDERERS" brags of it's homosexuallity:
the guys at the bath-house stopped laughing at my 3 inch weenie.
: http://groups-beta.google.com/group/rec.autos.driving/msg/168e8e621dd649fb?hl=en

"Speeders And Drunk Drivers Are MURDERERS" brags of it's ability to operate a vehicle:
I must be doing something right to go 3 1/2 years without a fatal crash.
: http://groups.google.com/group/misc.transport.road/msg/a376114ee8a61824?hl=en
.

Relevant Pages

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