Patent ID: 7699223

Claim:
An apparatus for retail information collection, comprising: a card reader; and a Y-cable having an input port and two output ports; the input port being connected to a barcode scanner, one output port being connected to the card reader, and the other output port being connected to an electronic cash register; the Y-cable being adapted to route a barcode data from the barcode scanner simultaneously to the card reader and to the electronic cash register; the card reader having loaded onto it a software comprising a retail information collection application; the application being adapted to process received retail information data relating to a customer transaction, including one or more barcode data and one or more financial data, and transmit sanitized retail information data over a network; wherein the retail information data is based on the barcode data; and wherein the application comprises: a product list compiler process for compiling a product list indicative of the received retail information data relating to the customer transaction; an sanitization process for removing selected one or more financial data of the received retail information data to provide a sanitized retail information data that is transmittable over the network; and a timer process for identifying completion of a retail transaction and automated deployment of the sanitized retail information data after the completion of a retail transaction.