King County (Seattle) using customer grocery store data to target pet owners, send licensing notices

“You see…Vee have noticed that you’ve been buying quite a lot of dog food recently…Now vee can do this the easy vay or the hard vay…Where is the dog? And do you have a license? Please check in with with the local pet commissar immediately.”

(From KOMONews.com)

A King County letter that ended up in the mailboxes of thousands of pet owners is raising concerns over privacy.

The letter told pet owners to license their pets or face a $250 fine.

“It feels weird to me, it feels like they’re kind of snooping around in a place where they shouldn’t be,” said dog owner Chris Lee.

Turns out for the last four years, King County has been using data companies to target specific taxpayers, or in this case pet owners. That means every time customers swipe those rewards cards, they’re gathering data.

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