Supermarkets secret money maker....

This is a hill that everyone should be prepared to die on, not just farmers.

But the release of Red Tractor's Green Farm Commitment module has shone a light on an even more valuable asset.

Your data.

The secret money maker

Many people don't know, or choose to forget, that loyalty schemes are a massive money maker for the supermarkets.

Not only are they able to give discounts and more targeted offers but they also sell that data onto third parties for considerable sums of money.

The margins they make on data are significantly higher than the 2-4% they make on food. And best of all, unlike a bag of bananas, data doesn't have a shelf life.

Whilst it costs us consumers nothing to sign up to these schemes its worth remembering that:

when it's "free", YOU are the product!

Data in farming

So let this be a cautionary tale to everyone out there.

You personal AND farm data has value. A LOT of value, and there are plenty of companies out there who would pay a pretty penny to get their hands on such data.

I know this personally having just started looking at carbon audits for our own farm and the value based not just on the credits themselves but the data that goes into it.

The Green Farm Commitment has shed light on the value of data and it's ability to create leverage in the industry for the fairer treatment of farmers.

We should NOT be giving it away for free

And we should certainly not be paying to give it away like Red Tractor are allowing.

Take back control

Here are a few ways you can take back control when it comes to your data;

• DuckDuckGo - set up as an alternative to Google with a focus on privacy
• Data subject access request - you can submit these to any company to determine what data they hold on you
• Find out what websites have your email address - this guide will show you how to do it and take back control

Until next week......