Visa Adds New Way To Share Customer Shopping Data With Retailers (bloomberg.com) 46
Visa is rolling out new technology that will allow the payments giant to share more information about customers' preferences [non-paywalled source] based on their shopping history with retailers as it seeks to remain a top player in the competitive e-commerce space. From a report: The data will be shared via the payments giant's proprietary "tokens," which provide an added layer of security between a consumer's bank information and a merchant. Shopping inclinations and other information based on past transactions -- such as preferred categories, like movies or golf -- will be shared via token with retailers with the consent of consumers.
"It's almost entirely blind to almost all consumers," Visa Chief Executive Officer Ryan McInerney said in an interview of the company's token technology. "They just know their payments work better." The sharing of shopping data via token is one of a handful of innovations Visa unveiled at a conference in San Francisco, where it's based. Visa, one of the largest e-commerce technology companies in the world, is finding itself increasingly fending off competitors seeking larger slices of the fees merchants must pay to carry out consumer transactions.
"It's almost entirely blind to almost all consumers," Visa Chief Executive Officer Ryan McInerney said in an interview of the company's token technology. "They just know their payments work better." The sharing of shopping data via token is one of a handful of innovations Visa unveiled at a conference in San Francisco, where it's based. Visa, one of the largest e-commerce technology companies in the world, is finding itself increasingly fending off competitors seeking larger slices of the fees merchants must pay to carry out consumer transactions.
Great! (Score:5, Insightful)
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"It's almost entirely blind to almost all consumers. They just know their payments work better."
The blindness, however, will last only until they begin to see the increase in advertising spam they receive, based on the new monetization of their personal information.
Yeah right (Score:5, Insightful)
"Do you not want to not opt out of not sharing your information with our affiliates? (_) Yes, (_) Ask Again Later.
Evil credit cards (Score:2)
I've been trying to remove the evil credit card companies from as many transactions as possible.
I've cancelled Amazon Prime and do most of my shopping on eBay where I can check out with PayPal and direct debit from my checking account. I've also found eBay is cheaper (and includes free shipping most of the time).
I'm not certain this is better but it seems like an improvement.
Re:Evil credit cards (Score:4, Interesting)
I've been trying to remove the evil credit card companies from as many transactions as possible. I've cancelled Amazon Prime and do most of my shopping on eBay where I can check out with PayPal and direct debit from my checking account. I've also found eBay is cheaper (and includes free shipping most of the time). I'm not certain this is better but it seems like an improvement.
Cheaper before or after you factor in the 5% Prime discount that you lose by not having their credit card?
Re:Evil credit cards (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm going to guess "still cheaper", as I have seen that Amazon often marks things up to compensate for the "discount". They used to be truly cheaper. Now, for instance, I see items with "free prime shipping" are marked up, surprise, at LEAST the cost of shipping. So, we're essentially paying twice. Once for prime, and once again for the shipping that is baked in. I don't doubt that this happens with their credit card, too. If it doesn't, I'm still not having it, because Amazon has a solid history of casting a lure and pulling the rug.
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I'm going to guess "still cheaper", as I have seen that Amazon often marks things up to compensate for the "discount". They used to be truly cheaper. Now, for instance, I see items with "free prime shipping" are marked up, surprise, at LEAST the cost of shipping. So, we're essentially paying twice. Once for prime, and once again for the shipping that is baked in. I don't doubt that this happens with their credit card, too. If it doesn't, I'm still not having it, because Amazon has a solid history of casting a lure and pulling the rug.
Maybe, maybe not. What I usually find is that for anything that Walmart sells in their brick-and-mortar stores, they are usually cheaper, with only a few exceptions. But otherwise, for high-volume items and expensive items, Amazon is usually about even for the best price, though sometimes other merchants' cards or whatever can provide bigger discounts (e.g. PayBoo from B&H). For things that are only sold by third-party sellers, yeah, the price is marked up by shipping costs.
This is, of course, ignori
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Most things that I have cross shopped from Amazon vs eBay are quite a bit cheaper on eBay. Much more than 5% cheaper. Some things I have found to be 40% or so cheaper.
Amazon enforces (high) prices and controls discounting. I don't know how much Amazon charges to be on their site but I imagine it's close to Apple app store percentages.
Also, the 5% "rebate" for their credit card use is just them giving you back the 5% that the credit card charges them... so net zero.
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Most things that I have cross shopped from Amazon vs eBay are quite a bit cheaper on eBay. Much more than 5% cheaper. Some things I have found to be 40% or so cheaper.
Yeah, but how much of that is the "I might not get it or it might be fake" discount?
I stopped shopping on eBay a long time ago, except in situations where it was the only way to buy a particular product, because the risk is so much higher if the product doesn't work or is damaged. Return policies are inconsistent to nonexistent, you're on the hook for the return cost (if it is even possible to return it), and at least historically, you could generally assume that they would side with power sellers over ran
Re: Evil credit cards (Score:2)
I've never had a problem with eBay.
Everything clearly described. Received promptly.
Shipping and return policies are clear. Never had to return anything.
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Never had to return anything.
Wow. Probably one out of every ten things I buy online ends up going back because there's something fundamentally wrong with it. So if you've never had to return anything, either your standards are very low or you should seriously buy a lottery ticket, because you're the luckiest person in the world.
Re: Evil credit cards (Score:2)
I have had to return stuff from Amazon.
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And you have read Paypal's privacy policy?
It's ass-rape like all the others.
Even better (Score:2)
"tokens," which provide an added layer of security between a consumer's bank information and a merchant.
I have credit cards through banks other than my primary one just for this reason.
..."payments work better." (Score:5, Insightful)
This should be opt-in only. I want the payment processor to NOT be in collusion with any of the merchants I give business to.
Unauthorized selling of data about me should be a)illegal unless it is b)opt-in only that c)the customer/product is fully aware it is happening. Basically if any entity decides to sell my data I should be informed of every sale. Failure to do so should be by law a Corporate death penalty instead of a slap on the wrist.
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Ha ha. I guess you are not aware that some merchants volunteer Level 3 data to card issuers when processing cards. A fucking itemized list of your purchase. And that is already happening today.
Level 1
Level 1 is the most basic and most common. At this level, only standard cardholder information is required to complete a transaction, such as the amount and date of the transaction, and the merchant’s doing-business-as (DBA) name.
Level 2
As well as the data needed for level one processing, level 2 transact
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They either work or they don't. If I have cash it always seems to work.
This should be opt-in only. I want the payment processor to NOT be in collusion with any of the merchants I give business to.
Unauthorized selling of data about me should be a)illegal unless it is b)opt-in only that c)the customer/product is fully aware it is happening. Basically if any entity decides to sell my data I should be informed of every sale. Failure to do so should be by law a Corporate death penalty instead of a slap on the wrist.
Erm... this shouldn't be "opt in", it should be outright illegal.
Like it is almost everywhere else in the developed world... and most of the developing one as well.
If you don't like having no say in how your personal data is handled, support GDPR like laws. Make people who collect and store your data responsible for what happens to it.
Movies and golf (Score:4, Interesting)
The summary sent me searching "best movies about golf [rottentomatoes.com]" and I found "Caddyshack", and this one that had totally passed me by:
THE PHANTOM OF THE OPEN tells the heartwarming true story of Maurice Flitcroft (Mark Rylance), a dreamer and unrelenting optimist. This humble crane operator from Barrow-in-Furness managed to gain entry to The British Open Golf Championship qualifying in 1976, despite never playing a round of golf before. He shot the worst round in Open history and drew the ire of the golfing elite, but became a folk hero in the process and, more importantly, showed his family the importance of pursuing your dreams.
I'll act when this goes "live" (Score:2)
Unless I hear the right answers to my questions, I will soon be one credit card short of where I am now. When I finish writing this, I'll be off to find a card to replace the one I expect to cancel. That will be a shame, in a way. I've had it for years and accumulated a bunch of perks.
Re:I'll act when this goes "live" (Score:4, Interesting)
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That's an interesting thought. Depending on the degree to which different credit card companies talk to each other putting them in silos might be effective. Certainly the idea is worth checking into.
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Visa recently added a "feature to prevent problems with expiring credit cards" so that if you burn a cc# to cut off an abusive merchant, Visa will "helpfully" inform the merchant of your new cc#.
One more step towards Programmable Surveillable Money.
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The best approach might be just the opposite of what you propose. Rather than eliminate the one card (VISA) that is proposing this sharing of consumer data, simply plan on having one card per merchant. That way the only data that can be shared with the merchant is information the merchant already has.
How do you propose doing that? I may be wrong, but I only can think of 5 credit card companies, and if Visa does this, I'd be shocked if Mastercard, Discover, American Express, and Synchrony Bank (counting them as they're the ones who do most store cards) didn't start offering this as well. I don't know about you, but I shop at more than 4 stores with my credit cards and even use them to purchase services.
Honestly, I'll be surprised if Synchrony doesn't already do something like this and just doesn't make
Good luck (Score:2)
I use my credit card for so little it would be a true miracle if any advertiser wanted to contact me.
Whenever I hear the average credit card debt is X, I have to think there's at least one person out there who has double that amount to make up for my zero balance.
New Technology? (Score:4, Insightful)
Pretty much most retailers already share their data with the likes of AC Neilson and IRI, then package it up and sell it to data consumers for analytics. The only thing new here seems to be Visa wants in on the game too
And the great thing is (Score:5, Insightful)
If you don't like it, you can't do a damn thing about it because EMVCo has a worldwide monoly on cashless payment.
EMV literally controls who gets to do what when it comes to payment. It's an unprecedented and absolutely scary level of control in the hands of private individuals, and nobody - least of which our elected officials - seems to give a flying fuck!
If you don't believe me, ask Pornhub [nbcnews.com] or Wikileaks [zdnet.com] what happens when the obscene payment monopoly doesn't like what you do and unilateraly decides to kill your livelihood.
Re:And the great thing is (Score:4, Interesting)
At some point the cost of doing "cashless payments" will be higher than the "inconvenience" of using cash, at least for some people. That might stop the bleed from the transaction fees that enrich the "cashless payment processors" who have managed to insert themselves into virtually every exchange of currency for goods and services, even more insidiously than the IRS does.
The credit card industry has already begun a march towards gathering finer and finer detail about consumer activities with the creation of a special merchant code for firearms retailers so as to track consumer behavior in this area. How long will it take them to create finer and finer categories for transactions, until they are down to individual categories for each retailer? Consumers will be told "Ho, ho, ho. Nothing to see here! We are just engaged in making your transactions better and better!"
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Added bonus (Score:2)
or specialize your order (Score:1)
"Double bacon cheeseburger, its for a cop" (Super Troopers) https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Oxymoron (Score:3)
will be shared via token with retailers with the consent of consumers
"It's almost entirely blind to almost all consumers"
I believe this is not a misquote. Visa truly believe that "consent" can be given in an "entirely blind" manner. Hmm, I wonder if they can patent the blind opt-in? That would truly be an innovation that defies the laws of nature.
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Yeah, this is the first thing that jumped out at me.
But they can't offer digital receipts... (Score:2)
It's impossible to guarantee customers can see what they bought in a standardized way. Every retailer needs to create their own system and support or not.
But we can sell those details to new retailers under the guise of a private enough system. All hail capitalism!
No consent (Score:2)
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For legal purposes, using your Visa card will be consent.
GDPR (Score:3)