America’s large grocery chains merging with Big Tech to track, control your food and drug purchases

Grocery giant Albertsons, along with partner companies Safeway, Vons, Shaw’s, Jewel-Osco, Acme, and Tom Thumb, is rolling out a new “Sincerely Health” tech platform app for customers to keep a close eye on their food and drug purchases.

The company describes the app as something that allows customers to “connect data from wearables, integrate prescriptions, design their diet and make telehealth or vaccination appointments.”

Albertsons is currently in talks with Kroger, by the way, to perform a merger. Should that be a success, the new Albertson’s-Kroger mega-grocery chain would capture control over 36 percent of the American grocery supermarket business.

Competitor Walmart, America’s largest grocery chain, is also rolling out a similar program to track customer’s food purchase habits in conjunction with the pharmaceutical purchasing habits.

“Your grocery purchasing habits have been considered very valuable data for decades now, with most major supermarkets offering things like ‘loyalty’ cards that give discounts on grocery products,” writes Brian Shilhavy for Health Impact News.

“But now, Big Food wants to merge that with your Big Pharma purchases as well, which would include prescription drug purchases as well as vaccines.”

Pixel tracking technology allows Albertsons to invade users’ privacy – but they can choose to opt out of it

According to Fierce Healthcare, the Albertsons Sincerely Health platform starts by asking users to fill out a questionnaire about the “seven dimensions of wellbeing.” These include activity, mental wellbeing, mindfulness, nutrition, physical health, self-control, and sleep.

“Responses are assessed along with the user’s age, gender, lifestyle choices and mental health,” the report states.

“Users can then set goals such as engaging in meditation five times a week, sleeping at least seven hours a night and taking 10 thousand steps daily.”

The Sincerely Health platform also connects users to the Albertsons pharmacy division for managing prescriptions, scheduling vaccine appointments, and making telehealth appointments through a partnership with Providence Express Care.

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