University students are used to not having to pay full price for goods and services, with student discounts an established part of the university experience.

A cafe next to an elite college on Rhode Island has now taken things to the next level by offering students free coffee – in exchange for their data.

Shiru Café turns away customers without college ID and swaps free drinks for data including students’ names, addresses, dates of birth and personal interests.
Students who sign up for the deal agree to receive information from corporate sponsors, who pay Shiru Café for the data.

Café management insist sponsors only receive generalised aggregate data, and no data about specific students.

The innovative business model has divided students at Brown, with some calling for a boycott of the café and others seeing little risk.

“Everyone has your information at this point anyway,” one student told NPR. “To give out my name and email and what I study does not seem so risky to me”.

The café now has plans to open outlets close to other elite schools such as Yale, Harvard and Princeton.