So, it seems the Govt had wanted to "track and collate" your takeaway purchases...

In yesterday's Independent there was an article about the Govt's plans to use surveillance to ensure adherence to Covid restrictions and they had some mighty old privacy oversteps in mind. Most could be judged an infringement of basic privacy but at least somewhat logical in a public health crisis context, one however is harder to make sense of.

Seems there were plans afoot to use banking data to track takeaway purchase habits.

Takeaways were fully accounted in the rules of lockdown, they were allowed, so does anyone have any notions of just why this information might have been of interest to the powers that be?

From the article : "Meanwhile, the book also discloses details of a plan considered by government to develop a dystopian surveillance system using information CCTV, credit card transactions and mobile phone data to ensure people were adhering to social ­distancing rules.

Information from social media and banking data on takeaway habits was also to be collated and tracked under the strategy developed by consultancy firm EY.

“What emerged was an almost Orwellian plan, bizarrely dubbed 1 Government Centre (1GC),” the book says."

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/politics/load-of-horsese-dr-tony-holohans-reaction-to-government-plan-and-lack-of-trust-in-stephen-donnelly-on-pandemic-matters-41606011.html