Supermarket surprise
When Allan Catterall signed up to a supermarket loyalty scheme, the last thing he expected was for this to lead to a phone call about funeral insurance.
The Palmerston North pensioner was ‘‘utterly appalled’’ when information he provided to Countdown had such a surprising result.
‘‘I signed up for a Onecard to save on my groceries, not to buy insurance ... and it was hugely insensitive to cold-call a pensioner about funeral insurance.’’
Catterall was particularly outraged because he believed his personal information had been shared with Cigna Life Insurance. This turned out to be a misunderstanding.
Countdown corporate affairs manager Kiri Hannifin said the company had not shared any information outside the company. In this case, a Countdown sales representative had called to offer Catterall a plan from the supermarket’s range of insurance policies, which are underwritten by Cigna.
Hannifin said Countdown apologised for offending Catterall, and offered to change the preferences on his card profile so he wouldn’t receive further direct marketing calls.
The company was also reviewing how its sales representatives approached customers to make clear they were calling on behalf of Countdown and prevent similar misunderstandings in the future.
The misunderstanding also raises questions about how well people understand what they agree to when signing up to loyalty reward schemes.
Catterall said companies needed to say what exactly they were doing with customers’ personal data, as well as where and who they were sharing it with.
For example, accepting the Onecard terms and conditions meant customers also agreed to accept a privacy policy statement on a separate page.
One section of the statement explained any personal information collected may be shared ‘‘within the Woolworths Group’’ – which includes sister companies such as Australian hotel chain ALH.
Catterall said he thought he would be contacted about Countdown’s ‘‘core business’’, such as supermarket specials.
He had not realised he’d also agreed his information could be shared for other purposes, such as selling insurance.
Consumer NZ chief executive Sue Chetwin said most companies did lay out what they did with customer data, but it was often hidden further into the terms and conditions than most people read, if they read them at all.
New World had similar clauses about sharing data with its wider business group and partners in its Clubcard terms and conditions.
Chetwin said it paid to remember the main point of company loyalty schemes was to collect data to make more effective advertisements.
‘‘It’s a double-edged sword. You do get benefits, but do they outweigh the privacy and data you’ve agreed to give up?’’
It was up to individuals to decide it it was worth the tradeoff, but consumers should always read all the fine print to avoid surprises, she said.
Massey University Professor Malcolm Wright, an expert on consumer behaviour and market research, said data-mining helped companies create surprisingly detailed profiles of customers.
Similar programmes overseas, in places such as the United States, have identified pregnant women, very early on, without big clues like a pregnancy test purchase.
In some cases, the expectant mother hadn’t even told anyone yet, and the sudden flood of special offers on baby products let the cat out of the bag, Wright said.
‘‘A couple of companies overseas have got into trouble [with the public] over cases like that.’’
Wright said such advertising was one of the clearest signs that in an age of interconnected and globally accessible data, privacy was becoming a thing of the past.
How we adapt to that, and if we can find a way to effectively protect people’s privacy, was still being investigated by think tanks, policy makers and philosophers around the world.