Frequent shopper programs allow stores like grocery chains to collect large amounts of personal customer data through loyalty cards. While companies claim this helps provide deals and discounts, the real purpose is to profile customers, learn their shopping habits, and target them with ads. However, this collection and sharing of personal data raises significant privacy and security issues. Customer data could potentially be accessed and used against them, such as in criminal cases, or sold to third parties like insurance companies. While companies insist data is private, there are no laws preventing them from sharing data, which could leave customers vulnerable if their identities are stolen or privacy compromised.