i-allow: selling your info

red_devil

Thanks for your questions on ALLOW and how you earn money.

Earning cash with ALLOW is simple because companies really value data and information they are willing to pay money for this. People who express a genuine interest to purchase something with them are even more valuable to these companies.

ALLOW does all of the hard work and we generate the most value we can for our members, when they share their data or purchasing intentions. However the value of information and data is not constant. Some companies will pay more than others and each piece of information is worth different amounts. For example, your name and address together with what you want to buy are worth significantly more than just your name and address. When you decide to share your data or a purchasing intention, we try to give you an idea of what the potential value of your information might be worth. We have built a clever piece of maths to do this.

However, it is important that you understand that this is only a guide and the true value can only be known once somebody, company or organisation actually pays money for the data. We ensure that when we release your data we get the highest possible value from it available at the time in line with your profile, your intentions, your permissions and your settings. Once we receive some money for your decision to share some information, we will then share at least 50% of the profit with you. This amount becomes your ‘ALLOW Earnings’ and will be credited to your Member Account.

Miss_Qwerty

Say, for example, I was moving in the next month, what would stop me giving my old address/phone number and sign up for info about anything and everything, then moving out and leaving the poor new homeowner to suffer the consequences while I get the cash?

Thundercatsarego

Well I need money as going through a messy divorce, so have signed up using a dormant email account that I dont really use much now... hopefully within 8 weeks I will start to get paid for receiving junk mail... and if it's not worth it, then I will let you know and remove myself from all lists. But it's certainly an interesting concept.

Thundercatsarego

Share 50% of profit? I thought Martin said it would share 70%? Hmmm... starting to sound dubious already!

happyfeet7

I just read Martin's newsletter and thought this looked a great deal and started to sign up. I never usually read all the small print but decided to this time. My concerns are that not only do you have to wait 12 months and earn £25 before payout, but it looks like you have to buy the offers through i-ALLOW's links, which I'm presuming are then affiliate links.

Another concern was that we get a share of profits, which could mean that after selling our details and even if we buy through their links, if they don't make a profit overall in their business, then there is no profit to share.

I think I'm going to stick with the cashback sites as at least there you get to pick the offers you want and get cash back reasonably quickly.

justinbasini

Hello.

This is Justin Basini and I co-founded ALLOW with my business partner Howard Huntley. Thanks for your questions which I would like to try my best to answer.

ALLOW is a new business which is trying to change the way that all our data is used by companies. The reality is that most peoples' name or address or other details will be on databases. That could be from the edited electoral roll, customer information that has been sold on, or information gathered from various different sources. This information is sold everyday for profit. There are many results but poorly targeted marketing is one of them. We want to stop that and create a place where people can profit from their own data and letting companies see it.

There is, believe it or not, around £10bn of marketing in the UK per year so even small improvements in making this more efficient is worth a lot of money.

ALLOW works in 3 ways. Firstly we opt our members into all the suppression schemes (MPS/TPS etc) and then help you exercise your rights under the UK Data Protection Act to tell marketing database companies not to use your information. All of this you can do yourself without ALLOW and we would encourage you to do so. More information on this can be found on our site under the Advice tab.

However we have found that many people don't know about these schemes or how to exercise their rights and find it a bit of a hassle. Therefore ALLOW will take alot of the leg work out of this for you.

ALLOW is free and quite easy to use. If all a member wants to do is take part in this opting out bit of the service then we are fine with that. Why? because it disrupts the current market and that is what we need for ALLOW to work.

The second part of ALLOW is a secure place where you can put in information. Everybody who signs up to ALLOW needs to give a name, address and email. This is the minimum information. However there are many other pieces of information you can give from what you want to buy, to what car you drive, to where you shop, to your shoe size! The more information in your ALLOW profile and the more you give permission for it to be released the more you will earn but you are under NO pressure to give us any information or to release it. All data stored in ALLOW is stored on Rackspace servers in a secure data centre in the UK. Rackspace use military grade security both to protect the physical location and digital data. All our data will be kept in the UK and never stored abroad.

Lastly if a member gives an explicit permission to us then we will release the data back into the market in a controlled way. Either on a limited time basis or single use basis. When we make a sale we take away our costs for running the business and then give 70% of the profit to the member. All marketing that is generated via ALLOW respects the channel permissions that a member sets - if you say email then it is email, if you say post then it is post.

Because we make members' data scarce (by opting them out) and then get specific and explicit permission the data is valuable and hopefully will become more valuable over time as our membership grows.

You can change your permissions, remove data or close your account at ANY TIME and are under no pressure to reveal anything you don't want to or give permission. We are hoping though that as people start to trust us and see the model working that they will value the control that we give them and release data.

Lastly, we are a new business funded by myself, Howard and our friends and family. We are working hard to try and change the way data is used by companies which is a big ambition. Over the next few months we are introducing lots of functionality such as ways to see how much data might be worth, closed email boxes to receive marketing through, and more opportunities to earn by releasing information in a controlled way.

The restrictions on the £10 sign up bonus which are that you get it after earning £25 of ALLOW earnings and after a year are in place to protect the business. We don't have the resources of a huge company and therefore need to ensure that any bonuses encourage members to use ALLOW for a reasonable amount of time.

I hope that this has answered some of your questions. I will check back over the next few days and see if I can answer anymore.

Thanks and sorry for the long reply!

Justin
Co-founder ALLOW

twentyonemile

Thanks for the heads up Justin. I'm sure it's cleared up a few details for people.

I just have a couple of further questions if you don't mind.

• Firstly; Upon signing up can we then specify to ONLY recieve email marketing material - not postal? (If for example you live with flat mates or parents it's not fair on them to pile up the junk mail through the letterbox!)

• Secondly, is it required that we open and read all mail we recieve? (Or can I set up a new email account for it all and just skim every couple of days?)

• Finally do you have any, even rough ballpark figures, of what we might expect to make? (EG - Giving maximum information and accepting all marketing earns roughly £3 a week)

Much appreciated!

p.s I just tried to sign up to investigate further but the address finder wouldn't work!:think:

Might tray again later.

Cheers
Phil

Widelats

I am giving this a whirl, i got £10 added to my account - it asks stuff like what groiceries you buy, what insurance you have, etc etc, and i guess sells this info to companies, i recieved a royal mail opt out form ans a email opt out form, the email opt out i have done and i just need to print the royal mail opt out form now and give it to them.

I would like to see how much gets banked up on my account over a year, if its a petty amount i will close the allow account down, simple as that.

Former_MSE_Rose

justinbasini wrote: »

Hello.

This is Justin Basini and I co-founded ALLOW with my business partner Howard Huntley. Thanks for your questions which I would like to try my best to answer.

ALLOW is a new business which is trying to change the way that all our data is used by companies. The reality is that most peoples' name or address or other details will be on databases. That could be from the edited electoral roll, customer information that has been sold on, or information gathered from various different sources. This information is sold everyday for profit. There are many results but poorly targeted marketing is one of them. We want to stop that and create a place where people can profit from their own data and letting companies see it.

There is, believe it or not, around £10bn of marketing in the UK per year so even small improvements in making this more efficient is worth a lot of money.

ALLOW works in 3 ways. Firstly we opt our members into all the suppression schemes (MPS/TPS etc) and then help you exercise your rights under the UK Data Protection Act to tell marketing database companies not to use your information. All of this you can do yourself without ALLOW and we would encourage you to do so. More information on this can be found on our site under the Advice tab.

However we have found that many people don't know about these schemes or how to exercise their rights and find it a bit of a hassle. Therefore ALLOW will take alot of the leg work out of this for you.

ALLOW is free and quite easy to use. If all a member wants to do is take part in this opting out bit of the service then we are fine with that. Why? because it disrupts the current market and that is what we need for ALLOW to work.

The second part of ALLOW is a secure place where you can put in information. Everybody who signs up to ALLOW needs to give a name, address and email. This is the minimum information. However there are many other pieces of information you can give from what you want to buy, to what car you drive, to where you shop, to your shoe size! The more information in your ALLOW profile and the more you give permission for it to be released the more you will earn but you are under NO pressure to give us any information or to release it. All data stored in ALLOW is stored on Rackspace servers in a secure data centre in the UK. Rackspace use military grade security both to protect the physical location and digital data. All our data will be kept in the UK and never stored abroad.

Lastly if a member gives an explicit permission to us then we will release the data back into the market in a controlled way. Either on a limited time basis or single use basis. When we make a sale we take away our costs for running the business and then give 70% of the profit to the member. All marketing that is generated via ALLOW respects the channel permissions that a member sets - if you say email then it is email, if you say post then it is post.

Because we make members' data scarce (by opting them out) and then get specific and explicit permission the data is valuable and hopefully will become more valuable over time as our membership grows.

You can change your permissions, remove data or close your account at ANY TIME and are under no pressure to reveal anything you don't want to or give permission. We are hoping though that as people start to trust us and see the model working that they will value the control that we give them and release data.

Lastly, we are a new business funded by myself, Howard and our friends and family. We are working hard to try and change the way data is used by companies which is a big ambition. Over the next few months we are introducing lots of functionality such as ways to see how much data might be worth, closed email boxes to receive marketing through, and more opportunities to earn by releasing information in a controlled way.

The restrictions on the £10 sign up bonus which are that you get it after earning £25 of ALLOW earnings and after a year are in place to protect the business. We don't have the resources of a huge company and therefore need to ensure that any bonuses encourage members to use ALLOW for a reasonable amount of time.

I hope that this has answered some of your questions. I will check back over the next few days and see if I can answer anymore.

Thanks and sorry for the long reply!

Justin
Co-founder ALLOW

Hi all,

Just to let you know that we don't allow companies to post in the forums, but as the above contains some useful info we're keeping it in for reference.

Hope this helps,

MSE Rose

motleycat

I signed up,I got no confirmation email to activate my account (i checked spam!)
Still got a funny feeling i will have an influx of mails to my email address and I WONT be getting paid for it...!!!!!!!!