Privacy is a popular area of interest amongst tech companies these days. With well-documented battles related to personal data abuse by companies like Facebook, other tech giants are looking for ways to sell their current or potential customers on the idea of protecting their personal data. Unfortunately, what a lot of people are not aware of is that privacy is becoming more of a marketing tool than an effective practice.

Companies like Apple can point to their Apple Card and say that it will never share or sell your data with third parties for marketing or advertising — but this statement alone indicates there is information Apple could access in the first place. Your information is not as anonymized as it’d like you to think. What it does not tell you is that Goldman Sachs, the bank issuing the credit card, is not bound by those same restrictions.

Goldman Sachs certainly will see your purchase information, just like every other bank in the world does when you use a card. Are they to be trusted with that information? If we take them at their word, yes. But they can and will share it for their own marketing and advertising needs — if you’re lucky they just won’t share it with third parties.

The question then becomes: what is the difference? Your information is still going to be collected, sold, and shared at your expense. If the thought of a tech company selling your data for profit doesn’t bother you, then the fact that your information effectively becomes public for any identity thief to grab should bother you.