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Old Jan 18, 2014, 8:39 pm
  #14  
reft
 
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: US
Programs: (PM)AA SPG (Marriott), Hilton
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Is previous "Purchase Card [aka P-Card]" data collection spreading to Consumer Cards?

I started some notes on this. I had been thinking of starting a discussion, but since it's here, I'll put the notes in the Wikipost.

American Express "Level II" seems to have the same data collection fields as "Level 3" VS/MC.

I would guess if your card is swiped separately from the cash register, the data transmitted is still Level 1. When you do an online purchase or buy from a store using a more sophisticated cash register/POS system that isn't using a phone line, the data may be available for transmission.

Since this started with B2B and government, likely there is no privacy baked in. It may be hard to tell if Level 3 data is collected on a consumer, if this data has legal privacy protections or not, either with regard to breaches or outright sale of the data.

I've seen this with AMEX and LLBean (online), as well as Sears & Stapes (in store). It's listed on the monthly statement.

I am curious if Amazon or other large retailers are doing this.

A past report about Target (no, not the 2013 breach) discussed how much data they were collecting on transactions to model customer behavior and market appropriately, but nothing ever came out as to what they were reporting upstream and what they were keeping in house.

For a retailer, information on what you are purchasing probably has value, either internally or for sale.

Last edited by reft; Jan 18, 2014 at 8:49 pm Reason: grammer/typo/clarity
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