Woman sues grocery store over not data-mining discount card info [priv]

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

[So you get sued if you mine discount card information and contact 
customers based on it -- and sued if you don't? --Declan]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Of possible interest for politech
Date: Fri, 18 Jun 2004 11:14:41 -0700
From: Kevin <kevin@[deleted].com>
To: <declan () well com>

Hi Declan,

Thought this might be of interest to politech readers.  A new twist on the
grocery store discount card privacy debate:

A woman in Washington State is suing the QFC grocery store chain for NOT
intentionally looking into her purchase history and informing her that she
purchased potentially mad cow tainted beef.  The case has interesting
privacy implications on both ends of the spectrum.

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"A new King County Superior Court ruling says Jill Crowson of Clyde Hill can
go forward with her lawsuit against QFC over the store's failure to notify
her personally about potentially tainted meat she bought in December.

Crowson maintains QFC was negligent about warning consumers, especially in
light of the QFC Advantage Card which tracks not only her purchases but her
name, address and phone number.

QFC wanted the case thrown out, but a judge just ruled Crowson can take QFC
to court."

Full article: http://www.komotv.com/stories/31775.htm

------------

To prevent a spam barrage, please do not post my e-mail address if you use
this.

Thanks,
Kevin


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