I have one of those. I "forgot" to send in the application thing that has my identifying info on it. Every few months they remind me to do it at the register but I keep "forgetting" to.
As do I ...
Unfortunately, the information about our lives gets to them (them = anyone that wants to know) via many, many sources.
Big brother has been here for years, get use to it. Everything you know about you, someone else is also privy.
For a small fee, I can get any information about you I want or anyone else I choose to know about.
I just use different phone numbers of people I know that shop at the grocery chain to get the store discounts at the register.
As an afterthought:
All I need is your name, OR, your address, OR, your term of military service and name, OR your High School (your fist name only needed), OR your telephone number, OR the stores you shop at, OR, your maiden name (if applicable), OR, your car license number, OR, … hopefully you get the picture. Any information and a few dollars and I will know all about you.
Even your FR name and a simple Google search would give me enough information (via simple trace software) to get all the information I would need to compromise your existence.
Just think what the government can do!
Have you ever written a check or used a debit card when using it? If so you've been pegged to the card whether you use it or not. I regularly get new cards for those places that want them, and give them bogus data. I've swapped cards with other folks too. The important thing is to make sure that the cards are useless for data collection by making sure the data is fairly worthless.
They really don't care all that much about your personal info.
While reporting your grocery purchases to Hillary Clinton might be one of the uses for the State Grocery Usage Registration Database Card, the primary reason that they want you to use it is to:
1) Identify the customers who buy their higher margin products;
2) Research how much these customers will pay for staple items, like milk.
They keep raising the price for milk, say, until these desirable customers stop buying it. Then they back the price off to where they start buying it again.
They're trying to keep the customers who buy the most at the highest margins.
That's what really is behind this VIC card thing.