My first reaction is disgust. But I actually see an upside to this.
The USDA will then have access to EXACTLY what each person has purchased. This would make it incredibly easy to spot a lot of scams (assuming that we had an honest government that was interested in doing so). Who is buying luxury grocery items? Why is the family that supposedly has infants not buying any baby food?
So many ways that the data can be sliced and diced. So much to learn from it.
The Big Brother companies use that data to spy on us. About time it’s used to track the gimmedats.
And for those who genuinely need and deserve assistance, it could be used to improve their situation and save taxpayer money, too.
You may be assuming the ID is valid, the recipient is only registered in one county, and/or the SKU on the purchased item corresponds to the list of allowed purchases (valid SKU).
There are a lot of ways to skin the USDA’s cat.