Would you sell your personal information for $10?

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My Facebook, Twitter and RSS feeds have been ablaze with today's Living Social deal: a $20 Amazon.com gift card for $10. I admit, I was tempted to buy one because -- hey! $10 is $10, right?

But before I signed up for the site for the deal, I wanted to read through the terms and conditions to see how my personal information would be used. On the Terms & Conditions page, users agree to the following:

You understand that much of the information that you submit to us (such as postings and invitations) is submitted precisely for the purpose of disclosure in a variety of ways by LivingSocial, and therefore such information is not subject to any confidentiality obligation. Other information, such as credit card information provided in connection with the purchase of a Deal, is maintained with appropriate privacy and security protections. You agree that information provided to us in connection with the purchase of a Deal, other than your credit card information, may be disclosed by us to the LivingSocial Merchant for their commercial purposes including to provision the Deal.

(Emphasis mine.) It totally makes sense for any social deal site to take its user data and pass it along. The promise of getting information on a few thousand shoppers is probably enough to lure a vendor into offering a deal, and the company can, over time, begin to analyze all its deals and start offering the analysis as a product to interested parties.

The question I am trying to answer: The data associated with my shopping habits is obviously valuable. But how valuable is it? Is it worth $10? Or much more?

I think I've just found a belated New Year's resolution -- to find out how much the dirt on my shopping habits is worth to retailers.

Posted By: Lisa Schmeiser (Email) | January 19 2011 at 02:00 PM

Listed Under: Freebies