Salon.com | Your rewards card may be spying on you — and impacting how much you pay by Jelinda Montes

AI generated summary, Read the full article for complete information.

Loyalty and rewards programs are increasingly turning into tools for “surveillance pricing,” where companies collect detailed personal data—such as purchase history, browsing behavior, location, income, and demographic information—to set individualized prices and selectively offer coupons, often charging higher‑paying shoppers more while presenting the discounts as “personalized” benefits. Maryland’s 2026 ban on surveillance pricing for grocery stores leaves a loophole that exempts loyalty‑program members, allowing retailers to continue the practice through targeted coupons after a card is scanned. Advocates and lawmakers in states like New Jersey, Colorado, and New York are pushing for stricter bans that would prohibit any price discrimination based on data, even within discount programs, while industry groups argue that personalization is essential for meaningful offers. Critics contend that the data‑driven model lets firms “hook, hack, and hike” consumers—hooking them with initial deals, hacking their profiles, then hiking prices and devaluing rewards—ultimately undermining the promise of genuine savings. The debate centers on whether true bans can protect shoppers without eliminating useful discounts altogether.

Read more: https://www.salon.com/2026/05/18/your-rewards-card-may-be-spying-on-you/

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I automated opt-outs for 500 data broker sites (open source)

https://github.com/stephenlthorn/auto-identity-remove

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What really happens when a breach hits

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After Hetzner & Proton, we’re trying TorGuard residential VPNs; they are working the best. We want no probs for every day websites & apps while connected to your home WiFi or WireGuard. But, Proton is a Swiss company (better protections for user) and TorGuard is an American company. It depends what level of privacy people need. This has been a lot of trial & error - that’s what this part of development is about.

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#supportsmallbusiness #cybersecurity #dataprivacy #VPN #datahacking

You said it, Zack.

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Most people store years of memories in apps they do not actually trust.
That never made sense to us.

Megatech Photos is built around privacy first.

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