There are two sides to the notion of sharing personal information. Some feel that they have nothing to hide, so why be protective about what kind of information they give? Just fill out the survey and take the ten dollars as compensation. There are also the black-helicopter “government is out to get us” crowd that won’t even show you the color of their eyes because that information is as deadly as anthrax.

I follow the “value-added incentive” mentality. If I really want something worthwhile, like a free buffet, then I might disclose how many cats I have or how often I visit the shoe store. So when I was presented with this survey that I had absolutely no interest in, I planned on telling them nothing. They included that ten dollar bill for people like me, attempting to pander to my sense of guilt. I didn’t ask for the money; they sent it unsolicited. Should I feel guilty for spending it? Should I mail them the survey?

There are horror stories about how easy it is to steal personal information, despite how businesses swear the information is kept confidential. Recently, eleven hackers were indicted for stealing more than 41 million credit card numbers from various businesses: TJ Maxx, OfficeMax, Barnes & Noble, and others. And those are credit card numbers, not just my shoe size.

Does it matter if someone knows my shoe size? It’s not the little bits of purchase habits that bother me. It’s the collective use of aggregated sales data. If I purchase something on a website that then has my full name and address, a cookie can be planted on my computer to track visits to other websites. The aggregated information about what I buy can then be used against me. For example, if my aggregated purchase trends show that I like to buy expensive shoes, a website might dynamically raise my prices by two percent because it knows I’m more likely to buy those shoes than someone else. The technology exists and is already employed. Haven’t you purchased an item only to see a coupon for a similar item on the same (or different) website? What’s to prevent a five percent discount from turning into a five percent increase?

I think some new logic is in order… it took me about 30 minutes to write this blog. Ten dollars for thirty minutes is twenty dollars an hour. Not my going rate, but I’d say I’ve earned my ten dollars for the night.