[MineralMan]

"And just how are they gonna get THIS data?

They're not. That's the great thing. The only way for this to work is for "the government" to get its hands on data sets that don't exist."

Don't they? I wonder. OTC drug sales...well, if you buy your OTC stuff at the supermarket and use your discount card, there will be a record. I suspect that there are more records than we know, to tell the truth.

[Timesink]

Personally, I buy most of my OTC stuff at Wal Mart. No shopper card, cheaper prices. (WAY cheaper.) No record.

[dirtboy]

OTC drug sales...well, if you buy your OTC stuff at the supermarket and use your discount card, there will be a record.

However, most of the time the discount card data is not shared at the purchase level with marketers - so for the government to compel a grocery store to provide them with discount-card data would often be a violation of the agreement between the customer and the store upon issuance of the card. And there is still always the option of paying cash and not using a discount card.