Expedia Giving Away $10K Vacation for Your Privacy - My Family Travels

Expedia Giving Away $10K Vacation for Your Privacy

Article By: Kyle McCarthy | January 11, 2011

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I just heard about Expedia’s “You Name It Contest and Sweepstakes” on the Expedia Facebook page that asks travelers to help come up with a better name for the online travel agency’s Vacation Packages.

Reading through the fine print, I learned that the winner will receive a vacation worth up to $10,000, and other participants can win $500 or $250 Expedia travel credits. Facebook fans will vote on their favorite among the company’s pick of the top 10.

So, I get it. Expedia is crowd-sourcing a new name for its packages tool by running a contest at www.facebook.com/expedia.

This seemed like a fun contest to join and I was happy to “like” Expedia in order to join it.

But as soon as I “liked” them, I was asked to agree to certain demands, and I balked at that. Big Time. 

Here’s what they wanted, in addition to my (self-described) clever new name for their vacation tool:

They wanted me to give them permission to:

“Access my basic information
Includes name, profile picture, gender, networks, user ID, list of friends, and any other information I’ve shared with everyone.”

Only I don’t share my list of friends with everyone, for good reason.  I love my friends and will happily accept them, and my relatives, and even my work colleagues on my Facebook account, but there’s no need for anyone else to know who I consider a friend.
Do my friends want Expedia reaching out to them with vacation offers? I don’t think so.
So this breach of privacy really ticked me off.  Not only will Expedia not hear my brilliant new name for their vacation packages, but I’ve also ‘unliked’ them — something that seems like a very cruel thing indeed.
What do you think? Have you sold your privacy for the possibility of winning a vacation?