Your credit history could soon be up for sale

Information about what shoppers buy on their Visa and MasterCard credit cards could be used to target individuals with online advertising.

Internal MasterCard documents obtained by The Wall Street Journal show the firm is in the process of designing a system that will collect purchase information from brick-and-mortar stores and convert it into data to be harnessed by advertisers.

Visa is also reportedly looking into ways to establish a similar system.

The card companies are said to be studying ways to secretly categorise buyers with similar purchasing profiles into "segments" that can be sold to marketers.

But Cnet reported on October 25 that MasterCard has suspended these plans because the company said it would reveal too much information about buyers.

While marketing executives may be excited by the prospect of more highly-targeted campaigns, the issue has provoked the ire of civil libertarians and privacy advocates.

"On-selling consumer data without their consent is illegal," Australian Privacy Foundation board member Katina Michael told ninemsn.

Dr Michael said that when consumers enter into agreements to use credit cards they are not consenting to their personal details being on-sold to third parties.

She added that consumers are becoming increasingly concerned that their data is traded by third parties and many are demanding that their personal information be stored in a secure manner and not passed on.

"From a privacy point-of-view the question is if they have proper consent," Michael Cope, president of the Queensland Council of Civil Liberties, told ninemsn.

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