I don't understand this. How does my credit card data tell hospitals what I buy? Personally, I can't get anything beyond a date (dubious accuracy) and the amount spent.
If you buy something at a liquor store, you're likely buying alcohol. If you buy something at McDonald's, you're likely buying fast food. Do you pay for a gym membership? Pretty much every store has an itemized list of everything you're buying - though only some of that is currently exposed to your credit card processor.
Obviously, some purchases are more obvious than others - but it's safe to assume that if there's a profit to be made regarding selling more-specific information about each purchase, then businesses looking to increase their bottom-line will seek to opt-in to selling that information.
What I expect to see is for it to star as an opt-in choice by consumers. Want a lower health-insurance rate? Opt-in to this program where we see where you're eating and if you're going to the gym. You're starting to see it in the auto-insurance industry where insurers will give you a safe-driver discount provided the device you attach to your car confirms you're a "safe-driver". But eventually I'd bet it will be a requirement for auto insurance. They're pushing to mandate auto "black-boxes" in every car. Right now, that data requires a court order to obtain in an accident, but how does that change when every car is connected? Does that data live with the vehicle, or is it sent to a remote ___location "for the safety of the data in case of a crash" or whatever spin they put on it?
