
Ask HN: Does Costco information collection bother you as much as it bothers me? - abawany
I am being compelled by family to get a Costco membership but their information collection bothers me. Particularly, it is pretty disturbing to me that they require a government-issued ID to open an account even though their form says that an ID is not required unless one plans to write checks there.<p>I know this is not looking like a well-formulated write-up but I am trying to understand if anyone else is concerned about this data collection, particularly if there is a breach. The way I see it, they keep your ID information, address, date of birth, another picture that they put on your ID, along with your shopping habits and history. If there was ever a breach, the data thieves in question would acquire a rich mine of information that might enable them to pass a credit check if they also had your SSN.<p>You can say that Amazon collects information. True, but they are intrinsically limited. You can create multiple accounts there and never have to give them ID or date of birth, etc. Further, you can close your account.<p>Costco seems to be very interested in tracking each individual consumer very precisely. I say this because when I questioned their information requests, they said that it is to ensure that I don&#x27;t have any existing accounts with them since they don&#x27;t like &quot;clutter&quot; in their system (stated as such by the counter manager.)<p>I know I have a choice to not shop there but I just found it immensely curious how obsessed they are with tracking individuals. The closest analogy I can think of is Facebook and Google&#x27;s respective &quot;real name&quot; policies, which are hardly impregnable.<p>Anyways, I guess I am wondering if anyone else has had similar concerns and has interesting theories on the matter.
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jeffmould
As much as I agree with you to some extent, every store you walk into, and
make a purchase from, whether it is a 7-11 or Costco, knows you. Especially
true of grocery stores where frequent shopper cards and tracking is used to
determine not only the ads you see, predict your purchases, but also overall
product placement within the store as well.

A good example of just how well stores know us:
[http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/02/16/how-
targe...](http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/02/16/how-target-
figured-out-a-teen-girl-was-pregnant-before-her-father-did/)

~~~
abawany
I agree that this example is disturbing. However, you can shop at most stores
with cash and no memberships, which I believe would make tracking more
difficult. Further, tracking used for recommendations is one issue but in my
mind, the idea of collecting semi/non-repudiable information about customers
such as ID card numbers and date of births is more disturbing to me,
particularly from an ID theft point of view.

~~~
dragonwriter
> However, you can shop at most stores with cash and no memberships, which I
> believe would make tracking more difficult.

As long as you don't show your face, sure.

[http://www.computerweekly.com/news/4500253499/Almost-30-of-r...](http://www.computerweekly.com/news/4500253499/Almost-30-of-
retailers-use-facial-recognition-technology-to-track-consumers-in-store)

~~~
abawany
According to my read of this article, it seems that this pertains to the UK in
30% of the retailers there. Also, 70% of the consumers expressed discomfort
with most of the tracking techniques with the highest disagreement pertaining
to intimate tracking techniques such as facial recognition. I feel that this
strengthens my point rather than weaken it. These UK stores are doing this
subtly without telling the consumer - when the consumer is asked, s/he
expresses alarm.

~~~
dragonwriter
> I feel that this strengthens my point rather than weaken it.

To the extent your point is "people don't like to be monitored", sure.

Your point seemed to be, at least in part, "avoiding ID-based memberships is
an effective means of avoiding monitoring", and to the extent that is the
point, the fact that stores are (subtly or not) employing techniques like
facial recognition weakens that point.

~~~
abawany
I think you have oversimplified my position. My specific complaint was related
to Costco demanding government-issued ID to start a membership.

Frankly, I am not sure what your article or statement is intended to show:
that we should just accept it because stores are doing it "subtly" in spite of
the customers' objections?

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eip
[http://genius.com/Bill-hicks-on-advertisers-and-marketing-
an...](http://genius.com/Bill-hicks-on-advertisers-and-marketing-annotated)

"Seriously though, if you are, do."

~~~
abawany
Thanks for the good laugh. I guess Costco happens to have a particularly AR
marketing department with a very compliant audience.

