What Kroger Knows About You (And Who They Sell It To) #Privacy #DataBroker #Kroger

Our Take

Credit to Mading Thok for digging into something most shoppers never think to ask about: what Kroger actually does with your loyalty card data. The findings are a gut check — a single shopper's profile touched more than 50 companies, including a major data broker, tobacco companies, banks, and even a SNAP benefits processor. That's not a side hustle. Kroger's data and ad business reportedly accounts for over a third of its net income, which tells you the real product being sold in a grocery store aisle might be you.

We cover license plate readers because they quietly stitch together where you drive, when, and how often — but this video is a good reminder that the surveillance economy doesn't stop at the parking lot. An ALPR camera can log your plate leaving the Kroger lot, and Kroger's own systems are separately building an income-predictor profile that Consumer Reports found can be flat-out wrong, sometimes costing shoppers real discounts. Different companies, same playbook: collect first, monetize quietly, let the customer find out later if they bother to ask.

The through-line for us is consent and visibility. Just like you can request your Kroger data profile, you can also find out which cameras are watching your block by checking our map, and push back on unchecked ALPR deployment through our action resources. Surveillance normalizes fastest when nobody asks questions — so ask them.