Freebies and free offers are a great way to get loads of products, samples, software, information and more all for free. But not all offers for freebies are on the up and up and not all freebies come with no strings attached. Many times the motivation for offering something for nothing is to collect personal contact information to add your name to a marketing database. That′s not always so bad considering what you get in return for minimal bother.

Nevertheless, whenever you give out your personal information you want to be sure you are giving it to something worthwhile and a company you can trust. You can have that assurance when hunting for freebies and free samples if you take a few moments to read through the Privacy Statements (and/or Terms of Use/Terms and Conditions) posted by the company offering the freebies.

It helps to know what you are looking for when you do read documents such as those, so here are a few pointers:

• Find out how the company plans to use your private information – is it to market more freebies and advertise their products? Is it to send you a recurring newsletter?
• Find out if the company plans to share your information with others – like sell it to other marketing companies who might ″'SPAM″ you
• See if the site is installing software, trackers, or spyware on your computer
• Look specifically for a clause stating that companies will not install such software or sell you contact info without your consent (be aware, however, that applying for their freebies might be implied consent)

Remember the golden rule that if an offer sounds too good to be true it probably is, and if there is no privacy statement and terms of use – steer clear! Take it as an assurance that the company plans to do something less than desirable with your information and protect yourself by moving on to a better, more upfront freebies provider.