What Does Fetch Do With the Receipts?
Unpack what happens to your Fetch Rewards receipts. Discover how your data is extracted, utilized for rewards & insights, and kept secure.
Fetch Rewards is a popular mobile application that provides users with rewards for their everyday purchases. It operates by allowing individuals to scan their shopping receipts, transforming these documents into opportunities to earn points. Many users wonder what happens to these receipts and the data they contain once submitted through the app.
The Journey of Your Scanned Receipt
When a user scans a physical receipt with the Fetch Rewards application, an image of the receipt is captured and uploaded securely to Fetch’s servers for processing. The system employs optical character recognition (OCR) technology to convert the visual information on the receipt into machine-readable text.
Fetch’s technology enhances receipt understanding and product identification. This allows the platform to accurately read text from receipt images and label it according to its content. The system can decipher documents from various retailers, preparing them for data extraction.
What Information Fetch Gathers
After a receipt image is processed, Fetch’s systems extract specific details from the digitized text. This includes transactional data such as the store name, transaction date, and total amount spent. The system also identifies individual items purchased and their corresponding prices.
Fetch’s primary focus is on collecting transactional data that provides insights into consumer purchasing habits. This includes recognizing specific brands and product types listed on the receipt. The application leverages this detailed item-level data to understand what users are buying. This allows Fetch to build a detailed picture of consumer behavior without requiring credit card information.
How Fetch Uses the Collected Data
Fetch Rewards primarily uses collected receipt data for two main purposes: awarding points to users and generating market insights for brand partners. For users, the extracted item and store data directly determine the points awarded. This includes base points for any scanned receipt, as well as bonus points for specific items or brands that are part of special offers. The app automatically matches purchased items to eligible promotions.
Beyond individual rewards, Fetch aggregates and anonymizes purchase data to create market research insights. This aggregated data, without personal identifiers, is shared with brands and retailers. These insights help companies understand consumer trends and purchasing patterns, informing their marketing strategies and product development. The platform also uses this data to improve the app experience, personalize offers for users, and identify popular products.
Protecting Your Receipt Data
Fetch Rewards implements various measures to safeguard user data and ensure privacy. The company utilizes data anonymization and aggregation techniques, combining individual purchasing data with that of millions of other users before sharing it for market research. This protects individual shopping habits while providing valuable insights.
Technical safeguards are also in place to protect information during transmission and storage. Fetch employs SSL encryption to secure user data as it moves to and from the app’s servers. The app does not collect sensitive financial information like full credit card or bank details, minimizing financial data risks. Fetch explicitly states its policy against selling personally identifiable user data.