It's crucial to protect your personal information when using the internet, so it's great when a website specifies exactly what it's doing with the data it collects from you. However, one recent clarification seems a little suspicious: Heinz.com is claiming that they are only collecting visitor data to put on a hard drive that they use to crush tomatoes.
Okay, um, interesting...
In a pop-up that now appears as soon as you open Heinz.com, the iconic ketchup brand states that although they do collect personal data from their visitors, they aren't selling it to advertisers or scammers. "FEAR NOT, HEINZ.COM VISITOR! YOUR DATA HELPS US MAKE MORE KETCHUP!" begins the announcement, which continues on to explain that visitor information -- such as IP address, email address, and browser history -- will never be sold and will only ever be stored on a hard drive, which will then be used to crush the tomatoes that go in Heinz's signature ketchup.
Hm. Seems like they could just use hard drives without data on them, though, right?
Apparently not. The announcement continues on to explain that "the hard drives are heavier with your data on them, which gives us a better crush."
Fair enough. While this isn't necessarily as comforting as an announcement clarifying that Heinz doesn't track visitor data at all, you have to imagine that no one visits ketchup company websites, so it doesn't really matter either way. We guess we'll take Heinz at their word on this one.