How Would You Like To Be Agloco's Top 3% Referrer?

Recruiting Tips
Not good at recruiting? Came across a very interesting site whereby it actually allows you to have your own recruiting page, very knowlegeable FAQs, getting referrals to sign up under your referral links. All for nothing, no hosting, no domain management nothing. The next best thing for any non-IT experts like me and you. Simple to use. And you just need to do it once.

Take a look. http://www.agloco.me.uk/

Agloco Dude "Own The Internet"

Just an interesting find on the web. I found out that this blog rank 3rd for the search term, "agloco own the internet" on google.com. ( click on the image to see enlarged version )

Agloco Dude is actually ranked just below the Agloco official site, and seen by google bots as the next most relevant site other that Agloco.com.

Like I said I will be giving non-biased review on Agloco, so maybe even the search engines find this site a very authority site? Hmmm.. I shall do my best to give the most up to date information I can lay my hands on. Watch this blog.

Oh btw, have a Merry Christmas, and a very prosperous New Year!!

Another 7-10 Weeks To Wait For The Agloco Viewbar

I am sure those who are already a member of Agloco, has received the latest email to inform its members that the Agloco Viewbar will not be out till another 7-10 weeks later.

Many of us are definitely getting a little bit impatient and can't wait to start viewing and surfing the web with the Viewbar, because we are want to earn some extra cash just to prove to many others that Agloco is a legitimate business that will pay its members.

And by doing so, we will be able to increase the size of this company and ultimately increasing the overall income for the company.

Nevertheless its going to be at least 7-10 weeks before anyone will be able to start earning officially. Watch this space!

Agloco Link Exchange Partners

Due to the fact that link exchange helps in the ranking of your site on search engine ranking pages, it is vital to be getting reciprocal links from like-minded Agloco sites webmasters. It is easy to do a link exchange with Agloco Dude, all you need to do is:

Give me a link on your site using,

Agloco News And Review Dude

And email me at info(a)moneymakingguru.ws Subject: Agloco Link Exchange. And tell us where you linked us, and give us your link details and you will get a link back. Its that easy.

Video Tutorial To Agloco Viewbar

AGLOCO Official Message

AGLOCO crossed half a million hits on google recently. In three weeks that is a lot of people talking about a new topic – AGLOCO.

We are excited by the attention and now with tens of thousands of new Members we hope to fulfill the promise of the company.

While over 95% of the pages about AGLOCO are supportive there are a number of claims about us that are not true.

• AGLOCO is not a get rich quick site (it will take a long time and hard work to make AGLOCO as valuable as it should be – there are over 50 people listed on the AGLOCO team page as people who have been working on AGLOCO, some for over a year). See http://www.agloco.com/web/guest/aboutus

• AGLOCO is not a new search engine nor is it a new ad network (the company will try hard to leverage existing companies whenever possible and not create new software or new communities for Members to use – Members should continue to use the Internet as they normally would.)

• AGLOCO is not creating spyware nor an intrusion on Members privacy (Member data is only looked at with informed permission of each individual Member; data is used by AGLOCO only to provide services to Members and is not disclosed; and Member data is destroyed if a Member ever chooses to leave AGLOCO). Privacy pages http://www.agloco.com/web/guest/privacy

But what we do stand for is a revolution in favor of the Internet user.

We put ten points about our Vision on the AGLOCO site on launch day. We think they all can be helpful in understanding what AGLOCO is trying to achieve. Here is one of them.

The AGLOCO Vision #1: Free is too Expensive

Much of Web 2.0 has been about Internet companies building a simple service and then getting users to do much of the work on it (including telling all their friends about it). Once the service is popular, the founders and venture capitalists make a deal to sell it for millions (and billions) of dollars. The users who helped build it (especially the early users who often put up with clunky software and weak websites) just watch.

When we looked at this system, we saw a bad price. Sometimes free is not enough.
We designed AGLOCO to reward all Members who join and with the referral system we designed it to give an extra reward to the Members who help build it.

In designing what AGLOCO would be, we felt starting just a specific service (like videos or music or blogging) would not go far enough. So we designed AGLOCO to be a platform for many kinds of services. On our website we cite easy examples of services to monetize for Members like search and advertising, many more exist.

Global companies start with a grand vision, but they start small. We first started working on AGLOCO out of our houses and apartments…We know our Members are keen to learn more about AGLOCO and we shall endeavor to communicate as soon as we strategically are able.

Posted by AGLOCO Official on Sunday, December 10, 2006

Several Domains But Only For A Year.

Had an interesting find on the domain of AGLOCO, did a whois and found out that Jim (James) Jorgensen, had bought the main agloco dot extensions, such as .net, .org etc. The most interesting find is that he only bought these domains for only a year each. ( Click on the image on the left for enlarged version.)

Are they planning to change the domain after a year, or are they not confident that this business will not take off? By the sound of it from their sites and maybe other big websites that are selling AGLOCO, seems to tell us that the business model and timing couldn't be better, so technically speaking they are very confident that this will work out better than it used to. Hence, it would be interesting to know why did they not bought the domain for 5 years or even 10.

Does that mean that in the past they could do payouts of $100 milion to members, does that means it is going to be more this time and for a longer period of time? I mean up till now, the sought-after Viewbar is not out yet, either has they give a glimpse of how exactly they are going to pay the members, it is really a suspense trailer being played on day-after-day for more than 14 days now.

Another thing that interests me is, since AGLOCO™ Inc is a corporation, then why did they not put the corporate's address and information on the whois. Any legitimate and proper businesses like Google or Yahoo has got a very professional way of showing ( not just in their whois or "about us" page ) that they are the big serious players. I guess this is the minimum that they can do as a corporation, to give the similar type of feeling to their potential investors or users ( partial owners ).

This is my personal point of view and of course they might have specific reason for doing the way they did, the thing is, it does make people ponder.

Any comments anyone?

AGLOCO Launches Internet’s First Economic Network

(Stanford, CA) November 21, 2006—AGLOCO on Tuesday launched the world’s first online economic network simultaneously in English and Chinese, in a bold initiative to give a fair share of the value generated by online companies back to individual users who help create that value.

Every time you are online, you are helping to generate billions of dollars for online businesses, but as an individual customer you do not get to share in the profits that your actions help create. AGLOCO − short for A Global Community − is 100% owned by its Members. AGLOCO uses its member-based power to get a share of the revenue from search companies, advertising firms, online retailers and user content companies as well as occasionally acting as a large buying cooperative, to negotiate better discounts or more convenient service. The bigger AGLOCO gets, the stronger the network becomes and the more revenue is generated and distributed back to its Members. The Members pay nothing and do nothing beyond what they normally do today...Just continue surfing and start earning.

“This is not a tale of it’s too good to be true,” said AK Mavani, a member of AGLOCO’s development team. “You have nothing to lose by signing up to AGLOCO, but potentially a whole lot to gain.”

With more Members and stronger cash flows, the profits that the Members share in will increase, which in turn will draw in more users and hence stronger cash flows. AGLOCO grows by Members inviting their friends to join. The more active users you refer, the more you earn from your company.

AGLOCO has adopted strict privacy and anti-spamming policies. Since without its Members the company would not exist, AGLOCO will never disclose any personal information in any way. To underscore this commitment, AGLOCO has hired Ray Everett-Church as its Chief Internet Privacy Officer. Ray is an internationally recognized expert on privacy law and Internet-related public policy. In 1999, he became the world’s first corporate Chief Privacy Officer, a development that became highly influential across the business world

“Our Member information is the ‘crown jewel’ of the company, and protecting their privacy is at the heart of our business model”, said Everett-Church.

To get your share of the internet, simply sign up on AGLOCO’s website (http://www.agloco.com) and start building your network by referring your friends and family. Once final beta testing is completed, download the Viewbar and carry-on surfing as you normally do. The Viewbar – an unobtrusive desktop widget – allows AGLOCO to collect revenue from Internet companies based on your internet usage, without ever disclosing any personal information.

Unlike other companies, AGLOCO was created to give you your share of the value you create by your online activity. And you continue to retain full control of your online experience: if you don’t want AGLOCO to collect revenue for you at any time, simply minimize the Viewbar and it will stop running.

To learn more about AGLOCO’s philosophy, visit us at http://www.agloco.com/web/guest/aboutus

Should you have any further questions, please contact AGLOCO’s communication team:

Email: press@agloco.com

Tel: + 1 (650) 206-2560 (Stanford, CA)
+ 44 (0)207 193-8713 (London)
+ 852 8197-9020 (Hong Kong)

Meet The AGLOCO Team

Akshay Mavani
A.K. coordinates strategy and represents AGLOCO's Indian Members. He brings experience as an electronic engineer, and worked in sales and strategy in China and Hong Kong before attending Stanford's Graduate School of Business.

Alex Tsai
Alex is AGLOCO's resident product management guru. An economist and business major by training, he brings over eight years of experience in database marketing, ad-serving and rich media, distributed computing, client software as well as consulting.

Allison Cui
Allison is AGLOCO's China specialist and represents our Chinese Members. She worked as a software engineer in Shanghai, China before attending the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Anne Sophie Mayos
Anne-Sophie handles AGLOCO's website and her sense of style makes sure it is always up to date. Originally from Paris, she designed media information sites for millions of online users at France's leading television channel.

Brian Greenwald
Brian works in business development at AGLOCO. A scientist by education, he worked in marketing and development for several biotech companies before attending Stanford's Graduate School of Business.

Cannon Bonar
Cannon is AGLOCO's ambassador within the teenage community. Currently a student at Central Middle School, he will represent AGLOCO's teen Members (and he tried hard to think of a cool-looking name for AGLOCO's).

Dan Jorgensen
Dan is AGLOCO's Member recruiting coordinator. He worked in sports marketing and online advertising before helping AGLOCO create its network.

Javier Alvira
Javier is AGLOCO's in-house blogger expert. A native of Spain, he worked as an engineer in telecommunications around Europe before joining Stanford's Graduate School of Business.

Jim Jorgensen
Founder of AllAdvantage and Discovery Zone. Jim's experience of paying $100 million to members in 1999 and pioneering the “returning value to Internet users” idea, is an invaluable source in guiding AGLOCO's new Development Team members.

Moshe Pinto
Moshe is AGLOCO's resident lawyer, he negotiates and executes contracts. Prior to joining Stanford's Graduate School of Business, Moshe worked as a corporate lawyer and political strategist in Israel and the US.

Nick Punt
Nick advises AGLOCO's technological and community development. He worked as a video game designer and online communities' product manager prior to attending Stanford's Graduate School of Business.

Ray Everett-Church
Ray was the world's first corporate Chief Privacy Officer, pioneering the field of corporate privacy professionals. An attorney and technology expert, he is responsible for ensuring the privacy and security of AGLOCO's Member information and providing guidance on privacy and anti-spam issues.

Sam Flax
Sam is AGLOCO's Chief Architect for the design of our economic network. Sam's 30 years in Russia and then 20 years in the US give to AGLOCO a unique perspective on managing and implementing our database.

Steve de Bonvoisin
Steve coordinates AGLOCO's communication and strategy implementation. Originally from Belgium, he has lived and worked on four continents and brings experience in economic consulting and as a reporter for a leading economic newspaper. He is attending Stanford's Graduate School of Business.

Trey Reasonover
Trey is our in-house community dynamics specialist. He became a Web 2.0 addict after working as a strategy consultant, and attends Stanford's Graduate School of Business.

On top of that, there are other contributors which are also contributing to the AGLOCO effort to make normal people like you and me to own the internet.

The Power Of Referrals.

Why you should invite your friends ?
You are paid for each hour that your direct and extended referrals surf (currently up to 5 hours/month). There is no limit on the number of referrals that you can get paid for, and your referrals do not lose anything in the process.


Build your referral network
As you tell your friends (direct referrals) and they tell their friends (extended referrals), you build up your own referral network. There is no limit to how many referrals you can have.


Increase your earning power
Members receive shares in the company based not only on their own use of the Internet, but also for the usage of all of their referrals. Members with the largest referral networks stand to benefit most from the community.


Share the power of the network
Like all networks, the power of AGLOCO™ (the economic network) grows exponentially as the number of members increases. Likewise, the company (which is 100% member-owned) becomes increasingly valuable as the membership grows. Both you and your friends can share in the wealth of the internet as members of AGLOCO™.

Join Agloco Now.

A Brief Company History

The Infomediary.
In February 1999, four of us sat around in the backyard of a house on the Stanford campus (we were either current or former Stanford students) and created a new concept – the online infomediary. We realized that individual users of the Internet, by their actions and the information they were providing (both willingly and not), were creating tremendous value. Yet none of this value was accruing back to the individual users.

We also realized that individuals held much more information about themselves which they might be willing to share if they would share in the profits from this information, and if other conditions - such as privacy and security - were satisfied. We knew that companies were willing to "pay" for increased information about users. But no system existed to bridge the gap between these two parties.

AllAdvantage.com.
So, we launched AllAdvantage.com in the spring of 1999 in an attempt to bridge this gap. By downloading and using the AllAdvantage.com Viewbar, members were effectively "renting" some of their computer screen and their clickstream data for hourly cash payments.

This "get paid to the surf the web" concept proved wildly successful with consumers. Tens of millions of people are happy to share some non-personal information and share in the profits that are being made on the Web, even though this was being questioned in the business press. The concept also proved to be highly successful in generating revenues, as most people agree that AllAdvantage.com generated more revenue in its first 12 months of operations than any online consumer/advertising company in history.

Ultimately – and unfortunately rather quickly – AllAdvantage.com failed as a company because we relied too heavily on venture capital financing and our growth in members far outstripped our growth in revenues early on. Put simply, we signed up members in Internet time and sold ads (our primary form of revenue) in old-fashioned media time. The AllAdvantage.com model started paying members as soon as they downloaded and started using the Viewbar, but it took time to monetize these incremental hours.

As the online ad market and the Internet financing markets crashed in 2000-01, the revenues from the business could not keep up with the rapid growth in members (and their associated fixed hourly costs). We unfortunately had to close the business, even though new members were continuing to join the network.

While we had no choice but to shut down the business, AllAdvantage.com did deliver everything it promised to members: We mailed out over $100 million in checks to members, and advertisers delivered the most targeted, information-rich advertising opportunity on the Web.

The company maybe failed, but the ideas behind it never did…

Where are we today?
Online advertising, after stalling in 2001-02, is bigger than ever (Google, of course, has changed everything). Targeted search and contextual text ads – almost non-existent in 1999 – are now everywhere. Companies – Google and Yahoo, for example – are trying to convince users to download "toolbars" (sound familiar?) to gather more information from their members. All this information – and the companies that gather it – is worth more than ever. Yet the individual users still do not have an effective way to get their share back.

YouTube was acquired for $1.65 billion by Google in October 2006. The story of how three guys made hundreds of millions of dollars in one year is a great tale of entrepreneurial success. But what happened to the first users who posted their videos on the site and told their friends to do the same? We don't hear about them, because they did not get anything (other than free video hosting). Wasn't it really these users that helped turn YouTube into a multi-billion dollar company? Sure the site is great and the founders deserve all the credit they get, but it is the users who ultimately made it valuable. There are plenty of video sites, and if it wasn't YouTube, another site could have filled the space, become a household name and been acquired for an amazing price.

We are not trying to pick on YouTube (which we happen to love using). How about the early users of Skype? What about those who first downloaded the software, made calls to their friends in different countries and told their parents to use it as well? They did not see a penny of the $2.6 billion that eBay paid for the company in September 2005. And MySpace? How about the millions of members there? How did they do when News Corp. bought the company for almost $600 million? After all, it was the members that Rupert Murdoch was after when he purchased the site.

The point we are trying to make here is that there are plenty of social networking sites out there, but it is the members that make these sites and services valuable. Yet, they get no monetary value from it.

We could go on. But the story is always the same: users (and the information they bring with them) are valuable. Creating a system that enables users to share in all these profits is the next big thing. We call it an economic network. Others call it a global online community co-op. Or "Linux for consumers." It's a big idea. And it's happening now.

AGLOCO.
We started AGLOCO at a coffee shop near the Stanford campus. We sat down with a group of Stanford graduate students to design the next generation of the Internet enterprise using the infomediary as one of the foundation blocks.

We decided we wanted to build the economic network that enables individuals on the Web to share in the profits that their data and their actions help create. AGLOCO is more than a Web site and it is more than a Viewbar company. It is a network that links people, their information and their friends together to form something bigger.

Like all networks that have come before (from the Internet itself to MySpace), this one gets stronger as it gets bigger. AGLOCO with 1,000 or 10,000 members is not much more than the sum of its parts. But AGLOCO with 1 million or 10 million members starts to become important. It's important because it changes the consumer-company relationship online and changes the way everyone thinks about their online experience.

Why It Works.
AGLOCO works because the network effects are self perpetuating. It gets stronger as it gets bigger. With more members and stronger cash flows, the profits that the members share in increase – and this draws in more users and hence stronger cash flows. The incentive to join early and tell many friends is big, as early members who help build the network stand to benefit the most (similar to nearly all start-ups, where the early employees tend to share disproportionately in the success of the company).

As AGLOCO grows, the economic incentive continues to grow as it is able to offer more and more value for its members. Unlike AllAdvantage.com which incurred incremental costs for each additional member-hour, AGLOCO generates positive free cash flow from each additional member-hour and has virtually no incremental cash expenses for additional use of the Viewbar. AGLOCO will have standard operating costs (site maintenance, bandwidth, insurance, telephones, office space, sales and administration etc.), but like Google these costs should be very low compared to the revenue Members generate.

The Members Own the Company.
That's right – 100% of the company is member-owned. Users make good ideas valuable. Good ideas are great, but without members, they are just that – ideas. Every decision is made by asking what is best for the members over the long-term. It's a new way of thinking, but it works because we are all in it together. So how do we make money?

We Own the Management Company.
The employees and investors own the management company. The management company collects 10% of the revenues of AGLOCO (like Tom Cruise pays his agent 10%). This should be enough incentive to continue to attract a great team of highly talented people that AGLOCO needs to maximize the value to its Member/shareholders.

Trust is Everything.
We lose your trust, and the network fails. We work on behalf of the members and everything we do must keep that in mind. Our members know what we are doing with their data and how we are using it for their benefit. Do you know how other Web sites are collecting your data or how they are using it? Chances are, you don't. Think about it.

No cost to a Member – Ever.
AGLOCO never costs anything for Members. Ask former AllAdvantage.com members what it cost them to join and most will try to remember how much they were receiving in monthly checks (that's right – receiving).

Privacy is paramount.
No spam, no pop-ups, no selling information, no emails from people you don't know, no emails to people you don't know, and no tricks. Period. Our track record is public – there are no hidden costs. The upside for members is potentially very large and the sky is the limit. The downside is essentially nil.

Be Patient.
People always want everything right away. We do too. But things take time, so stick with us. It takes time, money and people to build everything, and we'll get there. Members at AllAdvantage.com complained that we were moving too slow, and then after the company was gone they realized how good it had been and complained that it had gone away! It takes time to be able to send checks for over $100 million to members. And so it will take time to set up an economic network to share the wealth of the Internet with millions of online users. However, you have a role to play and can help us speed up the process, even making some money along the way. Here's how:

Get Involved. Pitch in.
Tell your friends and build your referral network. Design a Web site explaining the economic network (you can probably do it better than us). Email us your ideas. Design a cool Viewbar. Tell your company they should partner with us. Write about us on your blog. Ask yourself how you want to share in the value of the Internet. Think big. It's your company. Have fun.

Join Agloco Now


Tags : agloco infomediary Jim Jorgensen Johannes Pohle Carl Anderson AllAdvantage Own the internet

The 10 Commandments of Agloco

1. Free is too expensive (our favorite)
A free service is always great. However, if Members produce what becomes the core value of the company – as we have seen with recent online mega-deals - then we believe Members should receive a good portion of the financial benefit that the company derives.

2. A global community
The internet unites the world across cultures, borders and languages. AGLOCO wants to bridge the divide in global understanding and promote itself as a cross cultural, socially aware and responsible community.

3. A community with a shared sense of responsibility
We stray away from advertising and products that are socially unacceptable. We strive to create an active and socially responsible community.

4. Members that own the community should help promote and police it
A user that owns part of the community has more incentive to promote it and keep it free of malicious software and ill-intentioned individuals. We believe that the overwhelming majority of our Members will want to reach out to friends, family and colleagues, as well as protect themselves from scams and pitfalls on the Internet.

5. Every single Member benefits
Every Member should benefit in his or her way by joining a trusted community. Whether earning money while surfing, or giving that money away to charity, we believe the platform should represent what the Internet should be: a source of benefit for a large section of the population.

6. Trust is everything
The AGLOCO platform can be a gateway for an array of other services developed to provide both monetary and service benefits. Whether early virus and phishing site alerts or simply a trusted information exchange, Members should benefit from such a community. 7. Privacy is not a nice to have, it is a must have Our Members privacy is paramount. After all, without our Members, the community would not exist. That is why we will never sell, disclose or give away any or all of our Members' information. A high level of privacy is far more valuable to the community than any alternative.

8. You can make money without changing anything you do
The internet currently generates value from nearly everything a user does online. From a simple internet search, to clicking on an ad, to making a purchase, someone is making money from these activities. Our job, as stewards of a large community, is to ensure a fair part of that value is returned to our Members.

9. Providers should be stewards
The providers of a service where Members create the value should act as stewards, not owners. The stewards of the company have a duty to do what is right for the community, and maximize the benefits for the community. The stewards will act in the best interest of the community if the incentive system is aligned.

10. Members should be owners
The Members who are the source of value for an internet company should own that company. This brings transparency and rewards the right people who contribute to developing the company.

Global Earning

Global rates
Currently AGLOCO treats all countries worldwide on an equal basis: all Members can accumulate up to a maximum of five hours a month of Viewbar™ usage. Referrals will also be accrued with a five hour limit. If shares are issued they will issued at one share per hour for Member hours and one quarter share for each referral hour. AGLOCO reserves the right to change these rates at any time for any country on a country by country basis.

Country Specific Restrictions
Currently AGLOCO is open for membership to anyone worldwide. However, due to different regulatory requirements in each country, it may become necessary for AGLOCO to restrict certain countries from Viewbar™ downloads or Viewbar™ use. In some countries, for member participation, AGLOCO may have to qualify for share issuance prior to offering shares to Members.

In all countries prior to share issuance, Members' hours will be accrued and shares issued when the AGLOCO board of directors approves them. Some countries may be too small or legal requirements too complicated for shares to be issued to Members in that country. (As a Member owned company it may not be prudent to incur the excess expenses for all Members, in order to distribute shares in the countries so affected). In this case, AGLOCO reserves the right to exchange hours for cash, once there is a public market for AGLOCO stock.

History of Agloco (AllAdvantage)

AllAdvantage was an Internet advertising company that positioned itself as the world’s first "infomediary" by paying its users/members a portion of the advertising revenue generated by their online viewing habits. It became most well known for its slogan "Get Paid to Surf the Web," a phrase that has since become synonymous with a wide array of online ad revenue sharing systems (see, e.g., Paid to Surf).

AllAdvantage was launched on March 31, 1999, by its four founders Jim Jorgensen, Johannes Pohle, Carl Anderson, and Oliver Brock. During its nearly 2 years of operation, it raised nearly $200 Million in venture capital and grew to more than 10 million members in its first 18 months of operation. Within six months of the launch it was among the most visited web properties according to Nielsen/NetRatings and other Internet traffic survey firms and stayed within the top 20 throughout much of its existence.

AllAdvantage contributed several concepts to the marketplace that continue to have impact today. For example, the company’s Viewbar software was one of the earliest desktop user tracking and ad targeting technologies. The Viewbar displayed advertisements in a narrow application window that could be docked to the bottom of the user's screen, targeting those advertisements to the content being viewed by the user as they browsed websites. The same technologies, minus the permission of users or monetary compensation, became the basis of the Adware and Spyware industries.

The company also appointed the world's first corporate Chief Privacy Officer, creating the role as a senior level executive responsible for protecting the privacy and security of user data and managing a variety of risks and threats to the integrity of the service. The company appointed privacy lawyer Ray Everett-Church to the newly created position in August 1999, starting a trend that quickly spread among major corporations, both offline and online. By 2001, the non-profit research organization Privacy and American Business reported that a significant number of Fortune 500 firms had appointed senior executives with the title or role of Chief Privacy Officer.
AllAdvantage is perhaps most remembered for its successful adaptation of the "viral marketing" concept, a term first coined by the venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson. In viral marketing, members of the service promote it to their friends and acquaintances, which AllAdvantage enhanced by adding a compensation component, rewarding users for the number of members they successfully referred. In a May 2000 article for Red Herring Magazine, Steve Jurvetson cited AllAdvantage as a prime example of viral marketing success.

AllAdvantage ultimately fell victim to the sharp decline in advertising spending as the dotcom bubble burst and the U.S. economy entered a recessionary period in mid-2000. AllAdvantage planned an initial public offering of stock in early 2000, underwritten by legendary investment banker Frank Quattrone and his firm Credit Suisse First Boston. As the IPO market continued to sour through mid-2000, the offering plans were cancelled. The company continued to seek new sources of revenue and expanded its offerings to include sweepstakes. But the company finally halted consumer-facing operations in February 2001. By the time it closed its doors, the company had paid out over $120 million to its members.

A Few Important Questions On Privacy Answered.

Ray Everett-Church is an internationally recognized expert on privacy law and Internet-related public policy. In 1999, he became the world’s first corporate Chief Privacy Officer, a development that became highly influential across the business world. Since then, hundreds of major companies – including IBM, Microsoft, Bank of America and American Express – have followed suit and appointed their own chief privacy officers.

An author of numerous articles and books on Internet privacy issues, Ray has testified before the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House of Representatives, the Federal Trade Commission, and has appeared at numerous conferences and seminars. He is also a frequent commentator on legal and technology issues involving the Internet.

Ray sat down to answer a few questions about AGLOCO and privacy.

Q: How can I be certain my personal information is secure with AGLOCO and will never be sold or distributed?

Ray Everett-Church: AGLOCO’s Privacy Policy contains our promises to you about exactly how we will protect your personal information. The Privacy Policy, along with our Member Agreement, form a legally binding contract between you, the Member, and us. If we were to violate our promises, there are a myriad of law enforcement organizations, consumer protection agencies, not to mention armies of lawyers, who will make sure we don’t get away with it.

But there are two even more important reasons for AGLOCO to protect the privacy of our Member data:

First, the Members own AGLOCO. All of the company’s activities are based on the premise that the best interests of the Members drive every decision and inform every choice.

Second, AGLOCO is a new and special kind of business, called an “infomediary.” An infomediary works as an agent on behalf of consumers to help them get a share of the money paid by advertisers, on-line retailers and other marketers on the Internet. The more AGLOCO knows about each of its Members, the more valuable each of its Members gets. And the less other companies know about AGLOCO Members increases even further the value to AGLOCO, and thereby to you. Our Member information is the “crown jewel” of the company, and selling or renting the data would undermine the entire concept of the infomediary. Thus, protecting the privacy of Member data is at the heart of our business model and our incentives to never rent or sell that data are strong.

Q: If AGLOCO will never sell or distribute my personal information, why does it need it in the first place when I sign up?

Ray Everett-Church: There are two main reasons why we need your personal information.

First, we need to have a certain amount of information about you in order to create and administer your Membership, including the information that will be needed to make sure you get your distributions from AGLOCO.

Second, that information forms an important part of your Member data, helping us to know that you are a “real” person and thereby allowing AGLOCO to charge advertisers a higher price for the chance to have ads delivered. For example, having a postal code for each member helps us to target ads for local advertisers in your region. Such geographic targeting can be very difficult for Internet ads, which is why advertisers will pay a premium. Unlike any other Internet company, we will return that premium to you.

Q: How can I be sure AGLOCO does not change its privacy policy in the future?

Ray Everett-Church: The AGLOCO Privacy Policy is a “work in progress” which will be constantly updated and expanded to include new products or services that AGLOCO will offer to its Members. But the fundamental privacy protections contained in both the Privacy Policy and the Member Agreement will remain strong.

Anytime the Privacy Policy or Member Agreement changes in a substantive way, we will notify our Members via email and the website, and you will be asked to review the changes and agree to them. You are free to decline and to cancel your membership, at which time your profile will be deleted. Even after you leave, any data we may still have about you (including any financial and/or legal records that we are required to keep by law) will still be bound by the last Privacy Policy to which you agreed.