I think most people who are not in this group would expect it to be private. My snail mail isn't encrypted, but I have an expectation that it is private.
I'm a Star Wars collector and parent who shops at TRU. Beyond debt, the stores are mismanaged the same as most other old-school retailers that are having problems.
For the last Force Friday (the day all the stores get new Star Wars toys and people go out at midnight to purchase), there were numerous reports of TRU's opening at midnight with almost zero new inventory. How does that happen, it's a planned date set months in advance. My TRU also has $200 items that have sat on the shelves for over 2 years.
But, aren't ecommerce sites collecting this information and more from your browsing? I don't think it's possible to say one is much better than the other, just that we expect tracking online, not in the real world.