You scanned your loyalty card to save $1.47 on a box of cereal. Kroger sold your entire shopping history of everything you bought to 50 different companies. One of them works directly with your health insurer. Yup.
A Consumer Reports investigation found that Kroger made more than $500 million selling personal shopper data between 2020 and 2024. That’s a chuck of change right there.
One customer’s file had been shared with a data broker, tobacco companies, financial institutions and a company called Soda Health, which works directly with health insurers. All from loyalty card swipes.
You might say, “Well, Kim, I don’t shop at Kroger.” But Albertsons, Safeway, Target, Walmart, CVS and virtually every major retailer run the same playbook. Kroger got caught.
None of this violates HIPAA, which protects data your doctor and pharmacist collect. What data brokers do is figure out your health status from what’s in your cart.
The bacon, the antacids, the alcohol, the sugar-free everything. They build a medical profile from your shopping habits, and that’s legal.
🔍 What they know about you
Data brokers don’t simply track purchases. They combine them with your location data, browsing history and public records to build what the FTC calls a “dossier.” Then they assign labels.
Categories like “Consumer with Clinical Depression,” “Bladder Control Issues,” “Financially Challenged,” “Weekend Alcoholics.” Those get sold to insurers, employers and landlords.
Target famously figured out a teenager was pregnant from her cart before her own family knew. That was years ago. The technology is exponentially more powerful now.
The data broker industry is worth $316 billion in 2026. Your cereal preferences are a piece of that number.
💡 Three things you can do right now
You don’t have to quit loyalty programs. At the physical checkout, sing the Jenny song. Enter your area code plus 867-5309. That’s Jenny’s number. It’s already in most systems because so many people use it. I do this every time.
For the store app where you clip digital coupons, use a free Google Voice number instead. Pay cash on sensitive purchases. Never save your payment method inside a grocery store app.
If you live in one of 20 states with privacy laws, including California, Texas and Virginia, you can request your data and ask the grocery store to stop selling it.
Search “privacy rights” on the store’s website. Spoiler: It’s not easy to find.
The most effective move is letting Incogni handle the cleanup. It finds where your information circulates and sends removal requests automatically. Here’s what else it does:
- Scans over 400 data broker databases for your personal information
- Sends removal requests automatically, no forms to fill out yourself
- Monitors continuously and re-requests removal when brokers relist you, which they will
- Shows a real-time dashboard of every request sent, pending and completed. You see it working.
Incogni has made over 2,800 data removal requests for me. I love that! They can’t scam you if they can’t find you. They can’t spam you if you don’t exist.
✅ Get started now and save 60% with my exclusive link. By the way, I get no residuals or kickbacks if you buy. I use it and wholeheartedly recommend it to you.
📩 Send this to someone who uses a grocery store loyalty card and has no idea what they’re actually paying for those discounts.