If having Store cards doesn't seem like a big deal to you read this.

[gvstn]

56. The problem

The problem with this is you are USUALLY not a person to them. BUT if for some reason you become a person to someone in the chain then all the information is available.

You like fresh cut flowers around the house and some wine with your dinner on cold nights. You pick up condoms once in a while. You buy that stuff around town. You find yourself in a lawsuit with your church volunteer landlord over your security deposit. Suddenly, you are portrayed in court as a drunken womanizer vs. an upstanding man of the faith. He may well be cheating you but the "facts" don't lie; you bought wine and flowers every week and probably had sex. You're a "bad" person as portrayed by the opposition lawyer. As long as someone believes his rhetoric you lose. (There may be better examples but you get the idea.) Look far enough back and cherry pick items and add a little hyperbole and you can make anyone into a demon for your purposes.

I like Amazon's "You might also like" suggestions but I do see how they could get out of hand if I bought everything from Amazon or Amazon started adding in suggestions for everything I ever bought anywhere with my credit card.

I certainly wouldn't mind a federal regulation that said all purchase data tied to a credit card had to be destroyed within two years of transaction. But with the thought police in full swing, I don't see that happening until a few more Senator's Ambien purchases are made public through scandal.