Tesco is to sell customer profiles from its Clubcard database to third parties.

This is the first time the company has looked to sell information from its loyalty cards and it comes in the wake of the retail giant's acquisition of a majority shareholding in Dunn Humby, a UK marketing consultancy.

Tesco has now established a new division called Dunn Humby Retail which will analyse the Clubcard information and sell it on. The company is currently in discussion with Procter & Gamble and it is thought that other fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies will be interested in the detailed consumer preference information that is contained in the Clubcard database. The Data Protection Act stipulates that personal data must be obtained and used fairly. Implicit in that, according to a spokesman for the Data Protection Commissioner, is the protection of the anonymity of the consumer which means that Tesco will not be able to reveal the names and addresses of its cardholders.

More than one million people in the State have applied for a Tesco Clubcard although it is thought that a significant number of those issued are either never used or used very rarely. Each transaction has been fed to Dunn Hanby since 1995 for detailed analysis.

That analysis is currently used by Tesco for a variety of purposes including the tailoring of Clubcard offers to individual consumers.

While such direct information about Irish shoppers' habits will clearly be of benefit to suppliers, the benefit to the consumer is less obvious. Closer links between manufacturers and retail outlets tends to limit consumer choice in terms of the range of goods available.

The selling on of such commercially valuable information opens up a new revenue stream for Tesco and reinforces its decision to maintain its loyalty card programme despite consumer indifference. News of the selling on of Clubcard information will almost certainly create a PR problem as consumers are likely to be concerned that personal information could be passed on. Statements from both Tesco UK and Tesco Ireland stress that any information that is sold on will be anonymous and the company is at all times compliant with the Data Protection Act.