Today I made a careless mistake, so careless and foolish that I felt I should share it, just as a reminder to us all: No matter how "aware" we strive to become, old habits die hard.
I went to a big-box store to pick up supplies no longer readily available at a local store. I'd decided in advance to pay cash and had it ready when I checked out. The clerk asked whether I had a member number. I gave it to him; he completed the checkout and I was on my way, feeling a bit smug, I'm sorry to say, about having used cash. No sooner was I on my way out of the parking lot than it hit me: You gave him your member ["rewards" or "loyalty"] card! You almost completely negated your use of cash!
While cash purchases - completely unlike credit cards - leave no identifying trail from us back to the stores at which we shop, loyalty cards add information from our purchase to the company's data file on us. We get a discount. The company gets our data. The company "pays" us for our data which, as it turns out, is far more valuable than what we are paid back.
In financial publications, it's referred to as the New Gold. Your data can be used to get you to buy more, but it can also be sold. See here for several categories of buyers. Another "category" is the government, as detailed in Byron Tau's new book, Means of Control. "So what?" you ask, "I have nothing to hide." Well, you wear clothes, don't you? Not on the internet. Not exactly. Would you bet your life, or even lifestyle, on the "certainty" that no one with say three degrees of separation from you has anything to hide? That an AI bot couldn't conjure up some nefarious connection between you and actual places you've visited, online searches (or here) and transactions you've made, people who've texted you in the past month, especially if you've recently attended - or been geo-located near - a rally the government considers opposed to it? But, that's another topic.
Back to cash. One step at a time. I'm setting a goal of using cash at least twice a month, and then more frequently. And, when I do, I won't be giving my member or Rewards number!
Many thanks to Anne Gibbons for sharing her "Anne Can't Stand It!" column with some reasons for using cash, below. On her Substack, Anne also provides links to articles about reasons for using cash.
Illustrations
Anne Gibbons @annecantstandit
I'm a cartoonist, illustrator and creator of "Anne Can't Stand It!," a weekly cartoon feature that lightens the way out of the planetary looney bin we've been thrown into. annecantstandit.com, annecantstandit.substack.com.
