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Tesco is making £53m a year selling information on the spending habits of shoppers, including the 16m members of its Clubcard loyalty scheme.
Tesco
Clubcard details: Customers are being 'tracked'
The card is presented to shoppers as a good way of gaining reward points that can be turned into money-saving vouchers.
It is in fact designed to allow the supermarket giant to spy on shopping habits.
Not only does this let Tesco chiefs know which range of products to stock in different areas, but it can also sell the information to a range of retailers and to major manufacturers, including Unilever, Nestle and Heinz.
These companies can then decide where they will open new stores or run junk mail advertising campaigns for particular products.
The Clubcard data is analysed by the shopper information company Dunnhumby, which is owned by Tesco and made profits of £53m last year.
Dunnhumby pinpoints spending habits down to a postcode area, identifying which groups of residents buy, for example, the most wine, chocolate, fizzy drinks or organic food.
Tesco is also said to save £350m a year because the Clubcard information allows it only to stock products that will sell in vast quantities.
Dunnhumby's website boasts: 'We have access to the shopping behaviour of 13m households, with item-level purchase data from Tesco Clubcard.
'This helps manufacturers to understand the purchase decisions and habits of customers better than anyone else.'
Tesco insists there is nothing 'Big Brother' about the collection and sale of the data.
It stresses that it does not sell on details of individual consumers, but rather shopping trends at a postcode level.
However, critics said shoppers are in the dark about what is going on.
A free web-based company called ALLOW, lets people opt out of marketing databases. Spokesman Justin Basini, said: 'People think loyalty schemes are all about getting rewards, but they're about companies harvesting data.
'Companies make money by tracking
Tesco
Clubcard details: Customers are being 'tracked'
The card is presented to shoppers as a good way of gaining reward points that can be turned into money-saving vouchers.
It is in fact designed to allow the supermarket giant to spy on shopping habits.
Not only does this let Tesco chiefs know which range of products to stock in different areas, but it can also sell the information to a range of retailers and to major manufacturers, including Unilever, Nestle and Heinz.
These companies can then decide where they will open new stores or run junk mail advertising campaigns for particular products.
The Clubcard data is analysed by the shopper information company Dunnhumby, which is owned by Tesco and made profits of £53m last year.
Dunnhumby pinpoints spending habits down to a postcode area, identifying which groups of residents buy, for example, the most wine, chocolate, fizzy drinks or organic food.
Tesco is also said to save £350m a year because the Clubcard information allows it only to stock products that will sell in vast quantities.
Dunnhumby's website boasts: 'We have access to the shopping behaviour of 13m households, with item-level purchase data from Tesco Clubcard.
'This helps manufacturers to understand the purchase decisions and habits of customers better than anyone else.'
Tesco insists there is nothing 'Big Brother' about the collection and sale of the data.
It stresses that it does not sell on details of individual consumers, but rather shopping trends at a postcode level.
However, critics said shoppers are in the dark about what is going on.
A free web-based company called ALLOW, lets people opt out of marketing databases. Spokesman Justin Basini, said: 'People think loyalty schemes are all about getting rewards, but they're about companies harvesting data.
'Companies make money by tracking