He receives up to 200 dollars 150 euros commission

Should we give users the ability to prevent Bing, Google or Yahoo!, as well as all sites who live advertising, to follow in their movements on the Web The issue stirs up the medium of the Internet since the FTC (Federal Trade Commission, the body which ensures the rights of consumers in the United States) suggested early December to surf the Net without leaving traces. Microsoft has announced that its next browser, Internet Explorer 9, would include such devices. If this trend continues, websites will soon need much imagination to obtain individual's personal data.

The experience accumulated by some American start-up could then claim gold. For several months, young shoots are exploring a new approach: reward users who entrust them even more information on them. In Exchange, they participate in loyalty programs, receive advice, rebates or proprietary information. Bynamite in San Francisco promises-the concept still seems flawed - more control over its data: can choose to receive the advertising focused on any particular topic!

Access without limits

Once more, the movement left Silicon Valley. Created in September 2007, Mint offers users to help them better manage their money, in exchange for unlimited access to their bank accounts, credit cards, their insurance, etc. Paradox: while this site collects sensitive information, is one who has met with the most successful. "We have 4 million users in the United States," says Stew Langille, marketing director of Mint." Their median age is between 30 and 35 years and their incomes are slightly higher than the average national.

Users are offered to a monthly budget or a program to get out of debt. If they fail, they receive alerts. Mint's advertising for credit cards or savings accounts. He receives up to 200 dollars (150 euros) commission. The company was purchased in September 2009 for 170 million dollars (127 million euros) by Intuit, a company of Mountain View, in the heart of Silicon Valley, specializing in software of finance for small businesses and individuals. Its success has made emulate since in September 2010, American Express launched a little site on the same principle: Getcurrency.

A "Twitter" of purchases

Other initiatives followed, especially in the field of geolocalisation: sites like Foursquare (created in 2008 in New York; 4 million users, 60 in the United States) or Gowalla, Internet users that indicate stores or restaurants where they are located accumulate loyalty points that allow them to benefit from reductions in the signs they frequent most. One step more has been crossed by the California site Blippy, launched in December 2009 and nicknamed "the Twitter of purchases. Users who wish to see all purchases they make with their recovered automatically credit cards. They are then published on the site, but on Twitter or Facebook also eventually. Philip Kaplan, one of its co-founders, reflects on a reward program to recruit more followers-d-' as Blippy has scandal last spring publishing bank card of some of its subscribers numbers in error on Google! Swipely, inaugurated in May 2010 from Providence, Rhode Island State, follows the same model. Offermatic (Silicon Valley), open to the public since a few days, is at the crossroads of Mint and Blippy: giving access to the credit card statement, you receive reductions related to the history of its purchases.

Where will it end Waze, a Silicon Valley start-up, offers its users to communicate in real time traffic conditions and possible radar that they encounter on the road. The free application for "smartphones" already has 2.2 million users. These are for the time being rewarded by points in games on Facebook. Soon, they will benefit from cuts proposed by signs located on their usual routes, duly recorded by Waze.