Just how much information do you reckon you have "out there"? Probably more than you think, according to Tom Ilube, erstwhile CIO of pioneering internet bank Egg who is now starting up a new company with a simple aim. Garlik, which launches this week, hopes to educate, inform and help users protect themselves online, by enabling them to find out more about the personal information that organisations have collated and stored, and are sharing about them at this very minute.

From an online retailer or service provider's perspective, anything which makes the customer feel more at ease with interacting online is probably a positive thing, although many might have to change their attitude when it comes to handing out information on request. Despite the Freedom of Information Act firms are woefully inefficient at responding to FOI requests, but if Garlik is right, and consumers begin to assert their rights, this will have to change. In the end those who see this as an opportunity to build closer relationships with their customers will no doubt be rewarded with loyalty, and those who don't, may find themselves losing friends very quickly.

Taking a look at one search with Garlik founder Ilube, we saw how marketing organisations assign us all massively inaccurate profiles, which they then sell no doubt for a tidy sum. Ilube was categorised as an "Accomplished Single" – basically a Yuppie. No mind he's actually married with children. Whether I want to sign up to the Garlik service and find out what I've been classifed as is another matter; a "Young Optimist" perhaps? Let's hope it's not a "Thrifty Grey", another category which I can only assume means a stingy pensioner.