On Sun, 18 Jul 2004 16:40:56 GMT, Mark Thorson >
wrote:

>"" wrote:
>
>> Why in heavens name does he need to know specifically
>> what John, or Mary bought today ?
>
>It's entered into databases used by insurance companies,
>law enforcement, trial lawyers, etc. For example, if you
>tell your health care insurance company that you're a
>non-smoker to get a lower rate, but you buy a carton
>or more of cigarettes every week, they'll collect your
>insurance premiums while your healthy but deny coverage
>when you get an expensive disease like lung cancer.
>
>Or if you have an accident while driving, if the other
>guy's insurance company can show you bought a bottle
>of booze an hour earlier and the cops didn't do a
>blood alcohol test, this will be used to call into question
>whether you were sober while driving.
>
>Or if you run for school board against a rich guy, and
>he hires private investigators to check you out, they'll
>access the database to see if you make any purchases
>that suggest lines of investigations. Like if you buy
>a package of condoms every Friday, they will follow
>you around on Friday to check out what's going on.
>Are you cheating on your wife?
>
>This kind of information is worth a lot of money,
>often more than the actual products being sold.

LMAO!! Mark, you remind me of my older brother (whose name is also
Mark). *Very* similar sense of humor.

Mary