• RaoulDook@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    9
    ·
    5 months ago

    The card companies can get data from the Merchant Category Code to infer the nature of purchases, without specifics. The stores also have a record of what items you bought, which could also be sold unless you have a contract with the store that guarantees they won’t sell your purchase history (at least in the countries without strong privacy laws)

    • Blackmist@feddit.uk
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      5 months ago

      That’s per store though, presumably when they sign up with a payment provider (because there’s a lot of rules about e.g. using credit cards to gamble with).

      If I buy sex toys from Tesco, it’s still showing up as “groceries”. If I buy from a sex shop, it’s going to be more clear cut.

      I can see from my emails that PayPal send out itemised receipts on behalf of their customers, so they’re definitely collecting more data than the big two.