I buy medications for my Dad. He suffers from some chronic conditions that require a daily drug regimen. For a while I used my usual credit card when I visited his pharmacy, but I stopped. Today these transactions are strictly cash-only.

An odd pattern had developed in the advertising that appeared in my incoming streams. Affecting both snail mail and email, it was almost as though my health had taken a serious turn for the worse. Drugs, facilities and other products related to various diseases, diseases which I do not have, had been increasing in frequency dramatically!

I brought my concerns to the head pharmacist, the management of the company (it’s a chain) and my credit card issuer. Their response was universal. Sharing the data isn’t allowed. [We] do not do it. It is not done. I must be mistaken.

So I took to using cash. And when asked to sign when picking up the medications I use something else – an X, some scribbles or a line – whatever comes out of my hand at the time. If questioned I tell them why.

After quite a while – six months, maybe more – the marketing trailed off. Today the patterns I noticed no longer exist. (I suppose they all figure me for dead, finally succumbed to one disease or another.)

I brought my findings to the pharmacy and credit card issuer and asked again about marketing and data-sharing. Again, each defended their practices. I must be mistaken.

The traffic in my inbox is of little importance. What’s more worrisome is how else the data might be used. I can easily imagine, for example, an insurance company increasing their rates, or maybe denying coverage altogether, because I have a history of purchasing prescription drugs associated with a disease I haven’t reported to them. Legal? Not today. But since when has that stopped anything?

Watch your data trail, dear friends!