Spying loyalty

As every comic book fan knows, all of us reporters just use the job as a cover. We are all, in fact, superheroes in our spare time. \nThink about it. Ace Daily Planet Reporter Clark Kent is actually Superman. The Daily Bugle's best Spider-Man photographer, Peter Parker, is in fact the web slinger himself. \nMe, I got the short end of the stick as Gas Guy. That's right. I had the amazing power to sit around a gas station for eight hours a night while fighting off the dreadful combined forces of Sleeping on the Job Troll, Drunk Hillbilly and the always entertaining "I Swear I'm Not Going to Roll a Fatty with this Swisher Sweet" Dude. \nI say I had those powers because they were mercifully stripped from me by the magical and enigmatic Bank Manager, who bestowed upon my poor butt a loan to finish my last year of college without having to spend anymore time at the Fortress of Managerial Ineptitude. But as a condition of my newfound financial invincibility, the manager asked me to warn the citizens of Earth of a great threat. \nSee, this gas station I worked at is just one of many large chains that implement a loyalty card. These go by cute and friendly names like "values card," "rewards card" or "point card." They're especially prevalent at supermarkets and are designed to convince you you're getting a lot in return. \nThis devil has many names but one common thread: You put down your name, age, address, phone number, e-mail, fingerprints, a hair sample, a list of recent vaccinations, and the names of your sexual partners since age 18 or any combination of the info thereof, and the store, in gratitude of this info, will give you lower prices on select items while jacking up other costs. So important is this to some companies that managers were consistently threatening to fire good people who had worked there for years over not scanning enough cards and signing up more new people. No one I knew there was fired, but people at other stores have definitely lost their jobs over this.\nWhen did it become so much more important to businesses to track who a customer is, rather than just provide a service to them? You're already getting my money, why do you need to know where I live and what time I like to shop?\nI can't count the number of people who had no idea exactly what their "rewards card" was for but signed up anyway and continued to scan it after every visit. My only advice is that if you can swallow the higher prices of these places without signing up for these cards, you should. For me, it's worth spending a few extra bucks to keep my privacy. And if you can't afford it, at the very least put down fake info to screw up the intelligence gathering. Something tells me there are an awful lot of I.P. Freelys out there.