AwarenessWho's tracking you online
Loyalty cards & retail tracking
Clubcard points bought with a detailed record of what you buy.
Understand it
Loyalty schemes trade a discount for a complete record of your shopping - what, when, where and how often. That record is valuable: it is analysed, and often shared with or sold to partners, building a picture of your household, health and habits.
How to spot it
The discount is real; the data collection is the price. Both are by design.
Close the gap
- Decide scheme by scheme whether the discount is worth the record.
- Use a separate email alias for loyalty sign-ups.
- Give the minimum - you rarely need to hand over a full, accurate profile.
- Check the scheme’s privacy settings and opt out of data sharing where offered.
What to do about it
There's no single off-switch for this. A tracker-blocking browser, refusing non-essential cookies, and the data-broker clean-up in your plan cut most of it down to size.