Banks sacrifice customer privacy and sell your shopping habits etc. for larger profits.

NEW YORK - Banks have found a new revenue stream -- and this time, it doesn't involve hitting you up with a new fee.

Many of the nation's leading banks are using information about their customers' shopping habits -- how much they spend, where they shop, what they buy -- to make money.

Based on that data, retailers are offering targeted discounts via the banks through text messages, email and online bank statements.

The banks don't actually hand over your data to retailers. Instead, retailers describe what type of customer they'd like to target and the bank then sends the deal to customers who fit the profile. When the customer cashes in on the deal, the bank gets paid a commission.

There's also the issue of privacy. Aite Group estimates that more than 460 million cardholders will be enrolled in the programs by 2015. (In most of cases, consumers are automatically enrolled in the merchant incentive programs, but they do have the right to opt out -- as required by bank regulations.)


Link:
http://money.cnn.com/2011/07/06/pf/banks_sell_shopping_data/index.htm?hpt=hp_t2