free pc ... the time has come

See http://www.wired.com/news/news/business/story/17854.html An excerpt: A Free PC? Gimme! by Craig Bicknell 3:00 a.m. 11.Feb.99.PST Would you hand over personal information -- your income, interests, and Net-surfing and spending habits -- in exchange for, say, a free computer? Heck, yes! That's the answer more than half a million people have given Free-PC.com since the new company posed the question Monday. "It's been overwhelming," said spokesman Steve Chadima, "We knew it would be popular, but we didn't know how popular it would be." In case you missed it the first time, here's the deal: You go to Free-PC's Web site, and fill out a questionnaire that asks your age, salary, interests, what electronic gadgets you own, the age and gender of your family members, and more. In return, Free-PC gives you a brand spanking new Compaq Presario computer with free Internet access and email. The catch? Advertisers inundate your new computer with pitches tailored to your very specific, self-defined desires. What's more, they watch where you go online, and what you buy. Free-PC figures it'll make a lot more in targeted ad fees than it spends on the giveaway computers. Moreover, it hopes that its new model will ultimately make PCs available to everyone, regardless of income. "This makes ubiquitous computing a real possibility," said Chadima. But what about that personal data? While the company insists that it will never sell or expose the information it gathers, privacy advocates point out potential problems. For instance, while Free-PC might not sell data, it could be bought by a company that will. "In the event of a sale, all that data is inherited by the buyer, and there's very little the consumer can do to stop them from using it" anyway they please, said Jason Catlett, president of Junkbusters. Should Free-PC remain independent, advertisers might still be able to match an individual and his data.

I signed up for it a couple of days ago. Now I guess I'll just wait and see if they "approve" me. Then, if they do, I'll have to see how restrictive their aggreement is, and whether I can get away with wiping the drive and installing Linux or Solaris or something...