North Carolina could soon be the next state to require companies to share what they’re doing with your data.
When you sign up for a loyalty program or otherwise share personal information with a company, you often need to accept a privacy policy that outlines how it uses and shares your data.
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A Consumer Reports investigation found that grocery mammoth Kroger, which owns Harris Teeter, collects and analyzes shopper data and turns that data into profit.
“Store chains often collect your name, home address, email address and phone number, then study what’s in your grocery cart,” said Derek Kravitz, a Consumer Reports investigator. “Many retailers do this, but Kroger, one of the largest grocery chains in the U.S., is doing it in a much bigger, profitable way.”
The Consumer Reports investigation found that last year alone, its “precision marketing” arm generated an estimated $527 million. The company’s “alternative profit” ventures now make up more than 35% of its net income.
North Carolina Rep. Tim Longest, D-Wake, said consumers should be concerned that North Carolina currently does not have comprehensive data privacy laws.
“It’s pretty remarkable, it’s sort of the wild, wild West,” said Longest.
Longest has co-sponsored a bipartisan bill that aims to give consumers more control over what companies are doing with their data.
“[The North Carolina Data Privacy Act] is just to provide consumers with some basic safeguards around their data and to make sure companies don’t use it in unfair or deceptive ways,” Longest said.
If the bill becomes law, you’d have the right to obtain the data from companies, correct inaccuracies, find out who they’ve shared it with and have it deleted. The regulations apply to companies that collect data from more than 30,000 customers.
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Currently, companies already have to comply with comprehensive consumer protection laws in 20 states: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Nebraska, New Jersey, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, Rhode Island and Virginia.
“If North Carolina passes the North Carolina Data Privacy Act, Harris Teeter is ready and able to meet the requirements of that law,” a Harris Teeter spokesperson wrote in a statement to WRAL News.
The bill is currently stuck in committee.
Rep. Allen Chesser, R-Nash, another of the bill’s co-sponsors, did not respond to a request for comment.
Longest hopes consumers will have more control over their data as early as 2026.