However, it said consumers may voluntarily opt in to receive marketing material, and that this can happen 'through a third party who states that information will be shared.'

In a statement to NPR, Reckitt, which produces the Enfamil formula, said it didn't have access to Walgreens' customer information. And therefore, we're going to assume you are, and send you the targeted item.' 'So, it may be that people who are pregnant are likely to purchase X, Y and Z bundle of goods, then the company can make an inference that, OK, well, because you bought X, Y and Z, you're probably like these other categories of people in a particular class, like pregnant women. 'Companies such as Walgreens, Target, really any organization, can amass profiles of the kinds of things that consumers in particular categories are likely to purchase,' she said. One of the most infamous examples includes a case from 2012, when a teenage girl's father found out his daughter was pregnant through advertisements from Target coupons before she had told him herself.Īlicia Solow-Niederman, an associate professor of law at the University of Iowa College of Law, cites this as a landmark example in how valuable your purchase history and spending habits can be to a store, regardless of your search algorithms or online deliveries.

So could an infant formula company feasibly get a customer's data and send them a package? The history of this kind of marketing is long, and the legality is complicated.

Enfamil family rewards program