Your Name, Mobile No.? Now for INR 0.60 only!

Its 0800 hrs and you walk up to your local coffee shop for a morning coffee and newspaper in a rush to reach office @ 9.
While you wait for the cashier making your invoice, you are approached by this 'chirpy' girl wearing a nice, crisp 'corporate' uniform and offers you a Form & pen and claims that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to win a Car, Laptop or an iPod. Without hesitation, you fill in your Name, Address, Mobile Number, D.O.B, Car make, model - maybe your spouse name or her D.O.B or maybe your interests in life.
Now, any sane person would forget about that form the moment you walk out of that coffee shop, obviously, not praying to win anything at all! What you do not realise is that you have just been valued at INR 0.60 to INR 10 - as per your credentials.

The activity explained is extensively done by Data Mining Agencies or Data Capturing units who only do these campigns for capturing data which can be sold to Merchants, Marketers, Web Marketers or Call Centres. I agree that some of you might even make it to that meagre 2GB FREE iPod someday but your details have just been sold across the globe to some merchant who might have common products w.r.t your interests your may approach you two days before your spouse's birthday - which is the most vulnerable time for any of us to buy anything.

Someone has rightly suggested that the world is round - if you stop giving out your data in places, people would not be able to approach you - in turn - you would not know of the new products & services in the market - of not for purchase then at least for comparision. It is better to keep your crucial details safe yet deliver only the required information which cannot be used for any wrong purpose such as a loan sanction or your credit card authorisation. On the other hand, if you do manage to gain the art of smartly gauging places and giving appropriate information - you just might find it the most handy tool ever possible as you get hands-on information on your mobile by the means of an SMS, MMS or service message without you even going to a merchant - whats more is that you can purchase it there and then. Technology in it's true essence - is when it is used to deliver what every consumer wants, and I guess that is what we aim to do eventually.