IP: Targeted marketing gets personal

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

DRUGSTORE DATABASE USE RAISES PRIVACY ISSUES CVS Corp. and Giant Food Inc.
are using a computer database marketing specialist to send personalized
letters to customers who haven't refilled their prescriptions, reminding
them to keep taking their medicine and pitching new products that treat the
customer's ailments.  The editor of the Journal of the American Medical
Association calls the practice a "breach of fundamental medical issues" and
asks:  "Do you want ... the great computer in the sky to have a computer
list of every drug you take, from which can be deduced your likely diseases
-- and all without your permission?"  CVS and Giant Food say their efforts
are merely intended to help customers stay healthy.  (Washington Post 15
Feb 98)


 Edupage, 15 February 1998.