Yahoo! Airmiles?

Yahoo! has teamed up with Airmiles so that you can earn Airmiles reward miles for doing internet searches.  Really.  The deal is 5 Airmiles for every 50 searches.  Sounds easy, no?

No.  Do not do this.

Airmiles and Yahoo will be able to match your internet search information with your name and your shopping habits and your address.  That’s bad.  Very bad.

This is making me rethink my participation in all of the loyalty programs.  I was really resistant to join any of the programs but the free stuff won me over.  Maybe it’s just not worth it.  Individually, one company can track my shopping patterns (what, when, where) and they pay me for that information with free items.  Fair enough, I think.  However, I believe that companies can share that information with partners.  Do you think they link datasets?  Probably.  I assume that credit card companies are tracking me anyway so the President’s Choice card rewards me for data they already have.

Maybe I should just use cash whenever possible.  My purse would be lighter if I could throw out all of the loyalty program cards.

I’m starting to think that the free stuff I’ve “earned” has come at too high of a price.