Could you put a price on privacy? Apparently Google is willing to give it a shot and is currently offering an incentive scheme for people who allow full monitoring of their internet usage. The project is called Screenwise and offers a $5 Amazon.com gift code when people sign up, along with an additional $5 every three months. This will last for a year, although Google has said that it may open up the program again. The tracker is simply a Google Chrome extension that sends data back to Google.
A second incentive was also announced which entails the use of a Wi-Fi enabled router that monitors a household’s web access. This more comprehensive program entitles users to $100 for signing up and an additional $20 every month. This offer is open to members of Knowledge Networks, a survey and market research company. Again, this offering will be open for one year.
It appears that the former offering has been closed, but the second offering is open to 2,500 applicants. Aggregated data will be shared with third parties including “academic institutions, advertisers, publishers, and programming networks” according to the legal agreements.