this post was submitted on 18 Oct 2026
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Maybe only a semi-related rant, but I think people should also really consider the security and privacy risks of having random apps from these companies on their phones.
There are also legitimate reasons that they are provided this data (like grocery deliveries). The shitty part is that they don't have any privacy protections or policies, when I believe that they're required to by law.
By the name, it seems shops for cheap food. So many of their clients live with a low budget. Giving their datas most likely allow them to have better prices, special offers, and such things they need too much to refuse (unless they are security nerds).
Yet who is interested by the datas of poor people easily accepting things in hope of a financial help? Scammers? Criminal organizations looking for cheap workers?
Jim Pattison owns a bunch of grocery stores of different types. I believe its the same rewards program for ALL of them so thats like 60% of all grocery stores in BC.
Nesters is an organic higher price type shop, typically in richer middle class areas. Save-on is middle class. BuyLow and PriceMart are generally aimed at lower income /cheap deals.
You also overlook data brokers / AI companies / politicians in your list. Like, even if those had all been poor-person oriented chains, getting info about who shops there and potentially what they tend to buy, would likely be helpful for something like.... say.... ICE in the USA. Heck, you could cross reference that data with the list of names on the voter registry/govt lists, have it filter for 'foreign sounding names', to get a list of targets to follow up on. Poor refugees/immigrants might not be updating their address actively with the govt, but for a grocery discount with a store that supposedly won't release the data to the govt because of privacy legislation.... if a rogue AI 'accidentally' gets it, and a data broker then sells it back to the govt, you've basically laundered that data past the privacy leg.
My concern for poors were mostly that they are easy target for scammers offering too good solutions. Even the classical nigerian prince (or letter of Jerusalem / spanish princess ; it is the same trick) is far more efficient when personalized to the target. Also as many people claim they have nothing to hide to their gouv, not seeing that they aren't the only buyers.
Even those who love their gouv may feel they have something to hide to those who want to scam them, and to those who want to use them as a leverage to scam their relatives.
But you are right, I forgot the american political context ; and as scary as it sounds, I am quite sure that with six monthes of groceries, some statistics can guess quite correctly the political opinion and country of origine of clients.
"Thanks" to AI, hallucinations make that political targets would be randomized enough so that it should also be a concern for those who "have nothing to hide".
International treaties that were made decades ago, have not adjusted to the new reality of what the USA has become. That's why you see stories like the server being seized in amsterdam recently, which allowed the USA govt to go after an ISP in a foreign country for hosting left-leaning websites. The administration declared "anti-fascists" as terrorists, and DEI, or even just "people who say AI instead of Super Intelligence" as the enemy. Now all their treaties with western countries that allow them to extradite / try their enemies, can get leveraged to go after foreign progressives.
Getting data that helps them 'claim' there are enemies in other countries, makes it easier. Even just pulling something like the last 6 months of grocery data, as you noted, could let them see, for example, which Canadians are continuing to buy American goods, and which Canadians are "the problem". It can also help them better gauge the 'real' tone of the Canadian population, compared to the rhetoric spouted by the government. Lots of reasons to snag that data if you could.
The other two maybe, but despite the name Save-On Foods tends to be generally more expensive. So it’s not really aimed at poorer people.
Tell that to the Liberals who want to force companies to hold even more sensitive private information as they try to legislate away private internet use. This is a serious threat.