Your life is theirs to share

Thought you were just getting a happy holiday Peppermint Mocha from Starbucks?

If you paid for it with a Starbucks card, you weren't so much warming yourself up as opening yourself up to a world where your personal information is traded like animal skins. After years of surfing, searching and shopping online, I took the time to read the coffee company's just-revised privacy policy, which opens by stressing the company's "foundation of trust."

A later paragraph made me wonder: "Unless permitted by law, no personal information is collected, without first obtaining your consent for the collection, use and sharing of that information."

Fine, but read on: "The provision of personal information to Starbucks means that you agree and consent that we may collect, use, and share your personal information in accordance with this privacy policy."

In other words, the simple act of giving personal information is implied consent for Starbucks to share that information with its "consultants, strategic partners, agents, distributors, suppliers, contractors and other companies," as well as third-party, credit-card processors, mailing houses, Web hosts and e-mail vendors.

That's a lot of people to share a couple of pounds of Christmas Blend with, isn't it?

Indeed, Starbucks is as connected as Santa. The company sees where you are surfing. It knows when you're online. It knows just what you bought for whom, so be patient as you try to "opt out."

That option is on the site, said Beth Givens, director of the San Diego-based Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, "but hard to find."

In a statement, Starbucks said it revised the policy to clarify how personal information is collected and used. It is "shared," not sold. And Starbucks.com customers can control what is distributed by "opting out" on the site.

That's not enough for Givens, who, while reviewing the policy, homed right in on the "implied-consent" paragraph.

"That paragraph should be bolded and colored red and underlined," she said. "It sets off the danger sirens for me."

But here's a jolt that you won't get from a triple shot: Starbucks' policy is pretty standard fare, Givens said.

"I hate to say it, but it contains the same wish-washy and vague language that corporate privacy policies have."

Being tracked online should not be new to consumers. But that doesn't mean we like it.

Three years ago, there was a hue and cry when QFC grocery stores introduced an "Advantage Card" that offered discounts to shoppers willing to give their personal basics.

A group called Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering called it a "shopper surveillance card."

Even this newspaper asks some online visitors to register.

"It's what we give in exchange for the convenience," Givens said.

"You're giving a little bit of yourself, too, every time you conduct a transaction in the online marketplace."

And here I thought I was just buying coffee. Gulp.

Reach Nicole Brodeur at 206-464-2334 or nbrodeur@seattletimes.com.

She needs to carry coffee cash.