(Josie
Sayz: Update: This was just me trying to do a serious news story as an April
Fool's joke. No harm intended. Please stop spying on me Russia.)
Okay,
so there’s this huge debate at where I work and I just had to write about it in
hopes of getting some sort of response of some kind from someone.
So, I have a part-time job at a local supermarket in the ‘Home Delivery/Grocery Collection’ department and recently there has been an increase in the amount of customers’ payments that have been declined. Perhaps people have just overspent on their credit cards? Maybe they don’t have as much money in the bank as they thought? Well those were our thoughts to begin with until a few days ago.
The store where I work recently found out that banks and credit card companies now have more power to watch over your spending than we (and possibly many others) had actually realise. Most of you are probably aware that some banks and credit card companies have an anti-fraud policy, whereby if you use your card to purchase a rather extravagant purchase (usually anything over £1,000 in one transaction) then your card company becomes suspicious and assumes that your card is being used in fraud and refuses the payment to go through, unless you contact the bank/credit company that you are with to confirm the payment. Sometimes you may even find that if you purchase something for a company for the first time (and don’t use ‘PayPal’) that your card company either refuses your payment or requires you to confirm your security question’s password or something of the sort.
Well now banks and card companies can go one step further; they are employing people to track your every move. Every single item purchased and every single location that you have ever used your card in is now being monitored. “This is good,” you may be thinking. “Now I have total faith in my [insert bank/credit card company here].” But there is more to it than you may realise. Way more.
Alright, imagine you’re a 21 year old guy. You usually spend your money on rent, bills, groceries for one, nights out drinking with the guys, perhaps a lottery ticket here and there, gym membership, maybe a trip to the cinema, petrol, car insurance… but wait. It’s your little cousin’s birthday next week and she really wants that new princess DVD. You see it in the shop and make your way to the till. Okay, so you may feel a little embarrassed that you’re about to purchase a princess film, but what-the-hey, it’s for your cousin – surly the cashier will understand. But then, as you pop your card into the machine and enter your pin: your card has been declined. “How?” you scream. This is even more embarrassing than buying the princess DVD. You have the money in your account. You know you do. So why was your card declined? Simple. After being monitored so closely by your bank/credit card company, they don’t see a princess DVD as your regular purchase. Worried that your card was used in fraud, they decline it.
Okay, let’s try another. Have you never purchased meat because you’re a vegetarian? Well next time you go to the supermarket and purchase a meat product (maybe it’s for your elderly neighbour who couldn’t make it to the shops this week) you are likely to find that your bank/credit card company won’t accept the payment – even if the purchase only costs 99p. Why? Because you don’t usually purchase meat products, so your bank/credit card company assumes that the payment is fraud.
Maybe you’re on a tight budget and usually buy a supermarket’s-own value version of branded products, but then one day you decide to treat yourself. Instead of the plain, bitter, supermarket’s-own bar of chocolate, you’re going to buy the nice, big bar of ‘Cadbury’s Dairy Milk’. But when you get to the counter… your card is declined.
The idea of bank and credit card companies watching over people so intricately may appear, to some, to be the security blanket that they’ve always dreamt of. Not having to worry if anything happens to their card, because their company will notices if the thief even buys a stick of chewing gum or a bar of chocolate that is different from their own regular purchases.
Or is it a privacy intrusion? Is it really safety gone mad? Do we really need or want people sticking their noses that close into our private lives. So much so that they know where we buy our groceries and at what time, whether we purchase supermarket-value meals or more expansive branded items, whether we eat healthily or like to snack on sweets, where we purchase our clothes, whether we’re a size zero or sixteen, that you always buy a cappuccino because you find all other coffee tastes too strong, that you have an allergy to your neighbour’s cat so are forever buying tissues…
Do we really need bank and credit card companies spying on every single penny that we spend to really ensure that our money is safe? Do we feel comfortable in knowing that this is going on? Or is this really a huge invasion on everyone’s privacy and should it be stopped? I’ll leave it for you to decide.
So, I have a part-time job at a local supermarket in the ‘Home Delivery/Grocery Collection’ department and recently there has been an increase in the amount of customers’ payments that have been declined. Perhaps people have just overspent on their credit cards? Maybe they don’t have as much money in the bank as they thought? Well those were our thoughts to begin with until a few days ago.
The store where I work recently found out that banks and credit card companies now have more power to watch over your spending than we (and possibly many others) had actually realise. Most of you are probably aware that some banks and credit card companies have an anti-fraud policy, whereby if you use your card to purchase a rather extravagant purchase (usually anything over £1,000 in one transaction) then your card company becomes suspicious and assumes that your card is being used in fraud and refuses the payment to go through, unless you contact the bank/credit company that you are with to confirm the payment. Sometimes you may even find that if you purchase something for a company for the first time (and don’t use ‘PayPal’) that your card company either refuses your payment or requires you to confirm your security question’s password or something of the sort.
Well now banks and card companies can go one step further; they are employing people to track your every move. Every single item purchased and every single location that you have ever used your card in is now being monitored. “This is good,” you may be thinking. “Now I have total faith in my [insert bank/credit card company here].” But there is more to it than you may realise. Way more.
Alright, imagine you’re a 21 year old guy. You usually spend your money on rent, bills, groceries for one, nights out drinking with the guys, perhaps a lottery ticket here and there, gym membership, maybe a trip to the cinema, petrol, car insurance… but wait. It’s your little cousin’s birthday next week and she really wants that new princess DVD. You see it in the shop and make your way to the till. Okay, so you may feel a little embarrassed that you’re about to purchase a princess film, but what-the-hey, it’s for your cousin – surly the cashier will understand. But then, as you pop your card into the machine and enter your pin: your card has been declined. “How?” you scream. This is even more embarrassing than buying the princess DVD. You have the money in your account. You know you do. So why was your card declined? Simple. After being monitored so closely by your bank/credit card company, they don’t see a princess DVD as your regular purchase. Worried that your card was used in fraud, they decline it.
Okay, let’s try another. Have you never purchased meat because you’re a vegetarian? Well next time you go to the supermarket and purchase a meat product (maybe it’s for your elderly neighbour who couldn’t make it to the shops this week) you are likely to find that your bank/credit card company won’t accept the payment – even if the purchase only costs 99p. Why? Because you don’t usually purchase meat products, so your bank/credit card company assumes that the payment is fraud.
Maybe you’re on a tight budget and usually buy a supermarket’s-own value version of branded products, but then one day you decide to treat yourself. Instead of the plain, bitter, supermarket’s-own bar of chocolate, you’re going to buy the nice, big bar of ‘Cadbury’s Dairy Milk’. But when you get to the counter… your card is declined.
The idea of bank and credit card companies watching over people so intricately may appear, to some, to be the security blanket that they’ve always dreamt of. Not having to worry if anything happens to their card, because their company will notices if the thief even buys a stick of chewing gum or a bar of chocolate that is different from their own regular purchases.
Or is it a privacy intrusion? Is it really safety gone mad? Do we really need or want people sticking their noses that close into our private lives. So much so that they know where we buy our groceries and at what time, whether we purchase supermarket-value meals or more expansive branded items, whether we eat healthily or like to snack on sweets, where we purchase our clothes, whether we’re a size zero or sixteen, that you always buy a cappuccino because you find all other coffee tastes too strong, that you have an allergy to your neighbour’s cat so are forever buying tissues…
Do we really need bank and credit card companies spying on every single penny that we spend to really ensure that our money is safe? Do we feel comfortable in knowing that this is going on? Or is this really a huge invasion on everyone’s privacy and should it be stopped? I’ll leave it for you to decide.
- Josie -
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