“Mastercard takes this a step further, as U.S. PIRG reported, by analyzing the amount and frequency of transactions, plus the location, date, and time to create categories of cardholders and make inferences about what type of shopper you may be.”
Mastercard sorts cardholders by amount, frequency, location, date and time of every swipe, then sells the profiles. You pay the bank, the merchant pays the network, and the network sells you to advertisers on top. People trust financial institutions with their data more than Big Tech, and Mastercard is cashing in that trust. The ask from EFF and U.S. PIRG is only that it stop. There is no law making it.