When your card is swiped at a retail company, your information is passed to a card processor, who then sends it to Master Card, Visa, or the issuing bank. These guys sell the credit service to the retailer who then can accept all kinds of cards from all the card vendors and banks that issue them. There is no real way for you to know places your card number goes on the way to the issuer. Thus the way to understand if your account has been compromised is to know who your gas station, supermarket, etc. uses for their processing or really to wait for you card issuer to contact you.
These processors are supposed to encrypt all this information everywhere, but some of them have yet to complete this work as it costs money and money for security takes profit from the stock holders.
Nowhere in these systems should the cards appear unencrypted or unsecured, but ............ One more example of the banks and their ilk gambling with our money in their quest for profit.
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