Wanna See My Personal Data? Pay Up

from the interesting-idea... dept

It seems some folks are trying to set up a company that will let individuals sell their personal data to companies who want to know about them. Right now, companies take your personal data, and build profiles about you without you getting anything (other than perhaps slightly more targeted advertising). I'm really not quite sure how this system works, though. If the companies are already getting your data for free, why would they then agree to buy your data? More importantly, how many people are actually willing to sell their personal information like that? I could see people who are down on their luck doing it to make ends meet, but those aren't really the type of people that marketers want to attract anyway.