Independence Day

For years I've resisted the supermarket "club cards" that supposedly save shoppers a couple of bucks while allowing supermarket companies to collect data on their buying habits. Gradually I noticed that practically everyone else who shopped at Cala or Safeway used the cards, and the other day I thought, well hell, I bet I could just enter a random phone number -- you can enter "your" phone number instead of swiping your "club card" -- and it'll be somebody in this neighborhood. So I entered my own exchange and four random digits and sure enough, it went through. I saved three dollars and change.

Excellent. But then I went home and entered the phone number in Google. Within less than a minute I found that the phone number I'd used is the home number of a lawyer who works for the local branch of the ACLU! I love this country!

I won't tell the phone number; make up one on your own. Just use an exchange that's common in the supermarket's neighborhood. Then the market won't be able to track your Friday night purchases of cheap boxed wine and Cosmopolitan magazine.

Of course, the credit card company will still know. If you start down the paranoid road of trying to deny people access to your data, you could drive yourself crazy. Nevertheless, there's no reason to offer up your personal information if you can easily avoid it.