Yes they can and, unfortunately, even if you start paying by cash you'll still be tracked to a certain extent. It is extremely difficult to avoid any kind of purchase tracking because everyone from the private company that manages the lot you park in before going inside, to the retailer, to your bank, to the smart screens in the store, to your fucking smart phone (whether by GPS or wifi network identification) is working together to identify and track you.

It's really fucking hard to go incognito theae days.

If you're walking around with a cellphone turned on with a SIM plugged in or Wi-Fi or Bluetooth turned on (even if not connected to anything), stores still have ways to track you. They won't get your purchase info, but they'd know when you got there, how long you stayed, and maybe where in the store you went (if it's big enough for multiple access points).

Meanwhile, I've just accepted that they'll track me, and I'm fine if they give me a cut. Cashback and such to pay me for my data.

It'd be nice if I got paid for all the ads I see on the internet and outside.

I think paying in cash cuts down on trackin massively. Can you still be tracked? Yes. But are most stores going through the effort? I don't think so. Depends on the store too, I guess.

Maybe my tin foil hat is getting rusty, but to me it just feels like they'll just move on to the next dude who payed by card instead.

To the point where Target could figure out when someone was pregnant based on what they purchased.

I'm guessing you're talking about debit cards. From the Canadian Government: yes.

In detail:

Payment terminals can also be built to feed into a retailer’s "customer relationship management" database so that a retailer can track your purchases and tie those to other information about you, such as your email address, if you have given it to them. Financial institutions and payment card network operators could also profile you based on your purchase information.

This purchase information could potentially be shared and linked with information held by loyalty card companies, data brokers, or marketers.

If it's possible, then it's a revenue stream, so I assume it'd be done.

It's absolutely possible. It would depend on the store but I'm guessing a store that has a loyalty program is interested enough in analyzing customer data that they would use your credit card as a unique identifier of you as a customer, especially for transactions where there wasn't a loyalty number entered.

I didn't know if debit cards do, but I think credit cards do, which is why they can offer rewards.

Wouldn't this be illegal under GDPR as you didn't consent?

Yes, a good bit of stores do. I pay in cash generally, and I don't tie my email to my bank account. The nice thing with paying cash is you have a better idea of how much money your spending too.

But as some other users mentioned, some stores have these camera's in the parking lot that track your license plate. Generally park in a way that it cant see it when you enter or leave.

It probably depends on the store. I habitually pay via physical money, because in the event of a cyberattack I can still use it.

They use the loyalty card, because you accept the t and c of it when you use it