It was more of a joke -- you'd have to trade with someone you knew, so that you'd swap reward checks. Probably be more trouble than its worth.
The basic gist is that they mailed you the card, hence they now can track at least what your household purchases. I work at a fairly new catalog company, yet even I could mine down to a single households personal information, for a price. They then combine this information (perhaps even available through their own info from your BB credit card or warranty...) with this data they are now collecting on your purchases to track your shopping behavior.
All of this could loosely be grouped under Data Mining. At first glance, it doesn't sound all too important, but in today's business market, customer data is more valuable than gold. This leads to targetted marketing on a grand scale, which Best Buy can even combine with online behavior.
Normally, I don't mind giving up some of my privacy for money, but I like to avoid anything that can compare my online and offline behavior. Nevertheless, this isn't a clever gimmick to boost sales -- that's a side benefit. The real target is future sales, and if needbe, data they can sell to other companies. (I'm assuming it says so in the privacy contract, but I'm being pessimistic)
The basic gist is that they mailed you the card, hence they now can track at least what your household purchases. I work at a fairly new catalog company, yet even I could mine down to a single households personal information, for a price. They then combine this information (perhaps even available through their own info from your BB credit card or warranty...) with this data they are now collecting on your purchases to track your shopping behavior.
All of this could loosely be grouped under Data Mining. At first glance, it doesn't sound all too important, but in today's business market, customer data is more valuable than gold. This leads to targetted marketing on a grand scale, which Best Buy can even combine with online behavior.
Normally, I don't mind giving up some of my privacy for money, but I like to avoid anything that can compare my online and offline behavior. Nevertheless, this isn't a clever gimmick to boost sales -- that's a side benefit. The real target is future sales, and if needbe, data they can sell to other companies. (I'm assuming it says so in the privacy contract, but I'm being pessimistic)