Retailers Trying To Steal From The Customers

I have shopped at many popular retail stores including Burlington Coat Factory and Trader Joe's, when the cashier asks me or my boyfriend for our zip code when we use a debit or credit card. My boyfriend refused to give them his zip code. In my head, I have questioned if it was even legal for them to ask us for our zip code. Yesterday the California high court ruled that retailers do not have the right to ask customers for their zip code. By the retailers asking for the customers zip code, they are violating a “cardholders' right to protect his or her personal information”. According to CNN, “California Supreme Court's seven justices unanimously determined that this practice goes too far”. Many times people don't feel the need to question things and just going with everyone else, when companies can be pulling something like this which is not even really legal. 

 

It is appalling to me that companies can get away with something that violates the cardholders rights. When I go into a store and they ask me for a zip code, I feel bad if I don't give it to them but, it is my right to not tell them. According to the CNN, “While a ZIP code isn't a full address, the court's judgment states that asking for it -- and piecing that 5-digit number together with other information, like a cardholder's name -- "would permit retailers to obtain indirectly what they are clearly prohibited from obtaining directly, (therefore) 'end-running'" the intent of California state laws”. By the Supreme Court coming to this decision, it teaches that we should not always go with the crowd and sometimes we need to question others.