KQED's Forum How Loyalty Programs Manipulate Consumers and Steal Personal Data
Dec 17, 2025
Sam A.A. Levine, a former FTC director and consumer protection expert, joins Stephanie Nguyen, former chief technologist at the FTC, to unveil the deceptive nature of loyalty programs. They discuss how these programs act as data-harvesting machines, manipulating consumers through enticing offers and personalized pricing. Insightful revelations include the negative impact of point devaluation and the difficulty in unsubscribing. With tips on navigating these pitfalls, they highlight the need for greater consumer awareness and legal protections against exploitative practices.
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Easy Signups Hide Broad Data Harvesting
- Loyalty programs are widespread and often request just a phone number to enroll, but that grants broad data collection permissions.
- Samuel A.A. Levine warns the simple signup becomes a gateway to long-term tracking and profiling.
The Hook‑Hack‑Hike Business Model
- Loyalty programs now follow a hook-hack-hike model: lure, collect, then extract more value.
- Stephanie Nguyen explains firms use data to infer highly specific personal traits and exploit purchase behavior.
McDonald's Digital Monopoly As A Data Grab
- McDonald's revived Monopoly with a digital app requiring downloads and code entry to play.
- Stephanie Nguyen notes this could add hundreds of millions of loyalty users and enable deep inferences about them.