Wednesday, October 7, 2026
They Buried
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PX-2131
PERSONAL DATA — PUBLISHED BY THE SUBJECT
INVENTED FOR A FICTIONAL NEWSPAPER

Six subject-access responses covering one week of one reporter's card payments, with the published offline-functionality annex read alongside them

Origin
Five payment organisations and one wallet provider; and a public scheme document
Dated
payments May 2026; responses May–June 2026; annex as published
Extent
responses 31; annex 12 pages
Status
accepted
Redactions
All amounts, by the data subject's choice. Merchant categories left in, deliberately, because they are the point. Nothing else.

Chain of custody

Our correspondent made four ordinary payments, then filed subject-access requests on every organisation she could identify that might hold a record of them. Five replied within the statutory period; one replied after a reminder. She is the data subject and she has published them herself, with amounts redacted and merchant category codes left in, because the argument of the story is about disclosure and could not honestly be made without any. The money editor tried to talk her out of it and is named in the disclosure line.

Held by: They Buried, document room; the reporter retains the originals

Excerpt

Held, per transaction, across the six responses:

  amount · timestamp to the second · merchant name · merchant category code
  · terminal location (4 of 6) · card token · authorisation result

[MCC is a four-digit field. It says PHARMACY or BAR whether or not the
cardholder would like it to.]

— and, from the offline annex —

  value transferred directly between certified devices; transaction details
  available to payer and payee only.

Transcribed by the data desk. Line breaks follow the original. Bracketed matter is ours.

Editor's note

Filed because this newspaper keeps meeting arguments about disclosure conducted entirely without any. A reporter can find out what is held about her in an afternoon and six emails, and what came back unsettled her more than the document everybody is frightened of.

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