avs Online

Politech reports that Telegraph.co.uk has an article on a proposed system where loyalty card ("bonus card", "discount card") data would be mined to spot individuals with unhealthy consumption patterns. Persons that buy (and therefore probably also eat) excessive amounts of fat, sugar and salt, would be subject to health education.

I have been scaring people with a scenario where a supermarket chain would merge with an insurance company, and the insurance company would deny health insurance to people that have had unhealthy habits. It seems that this thought is not far from truth. What is more worrying is that the initiative for this came from MPs, not commercial entities.

Loyalty cards could also become a sort of a passport (the term "corporate citizenship" would then have to be redefined as an individual being a citizen of a corporation), where service is denied if the customer cannot provide a proof of membership/citizenship. Segmenting loyalty cards to "basic" and "exclusive" levels would be used to determine the level of service. I have a vague recollection that David Lyon's Surveillance Society discussed this theme.