Company Exchanges Free PCs for Personal Data, Privacy
A California outfit yesterday began offering free PCs, Internet access and e-mail to consumers who agree to give up their demographic information and their privacy in exchange.
Free-PC Inc. (http://www.free-pc.com), Pasadena, CA, allows targeted advertising messages to be delivered directly on the desktop. The company will ship its first 10,000 Compaq Presario Internet PCs to qualifying customers in second quarter 1999.
When consumers apply for a Free-PC, they will be asked to fill out a questionnaire that provides the company with typical demographic data, such as age, income and family status, along with information about personal tastes and interests. These data are then used to determine which advertisements are displayed.
Ads will appear in a frame that surrounds the working area of the computer screen. Ads are drawn from a collection stored on the hard drive that ships with the PC, so they will be displayed whether or not the user is online. The ad database stored on the PC will be updated periodically when the user is online.
Free-PC said that no personal information will be revealed to advertisers, and that it won’t sell or give away consumer data to third parties.
Free-PC is the brainchild of Internet venture firm Idealab!, which also developed search engine GoTo.com and online toy retailer eToys.
