Big Data, online trackers, and privacy issues were the talk of the internets in 2014. We were told of the dangers and security issues involved in customer tracking, how companies did not do much to protect our information, nor did they always ask us if they could use it, sell it, and profit from it. Privacy minded individuals, like Janet Vertesi, shared just how hard it was to keep secrets they wanted to keep. And then we had the Cambridge-Analytics Facebook data scandal. And then, nothing happened?

News about Big Data and privacy seems to have taken a back seat to everything else, or just fallen off the radar. Even when it was all over the place, I got the impression that most of the privacy dangers were tied to online environments. This was my mistake. There is probably another article out there clearly explaining how this is not true; I don’t need that article, because my Big Data insult came from my debit card.

MY STORY: I recently started seeing a new OBGYN and he recommends, generally, that all women of reproducing age take a folic acid supplement. This is something that is included in prenatal vitamins and usually only recommended for women who are already pregnant. But hey, I was will to try something new, so I went to the store to get some folic acid. Let me clarify, I went to a physical store up the road from where I live. I picked up the supplement from the shelf myself, grabbed a few other items, and then went to the checkout where I paid with my debit card. Different from how Vertesi attempted to hide her actual pregnancy from online trackers, I did nothing online.

AND YET: No more than a couple weeks after my visit to that store, I received a free and unsolicited care-package from Gerber, including baby food samples and whatever. Honestly I was so taken aback that I don’t remember all that was in the package, instead, focusing on finding someone who could put the contents to good use. I was also put on the list for a free Tampa Bay Parenting magazine that still comes monthly to my door even though I am not a parent. Just last month, I got my first Highlights magazine. My kid will surely have a great time with that educational content…wait, I still don’t have a kid.

I suppose I should know that debit transactions are sent over the same electronic connections that support everything else ‘online,’ but I really expected more privacy from my bank. And, in this day of Big Data, I kind of expect more from the Big Data companies, too. It would be obvious that all of my activities after buying folic acid did not support the assumption that I had a child. If they cared to look, it would also be obvious to AARP that my mother died several years ago, and does not need the life insurance offers that constantly arrive in my mail.