Listen up marketers, I know you’re taking my data.

I know that algorithms and people I’ll never meet know more about my interests, views on the world and weird idiosyncrasies than many of my closest friends.

I understand that I pay for Facebook, Gmail and many of my favorite services with fractions of my identity. I get that I’ve tacitly agreed to put myself for up sale and that my profile is triumphantly put on display as the cover lot of a creepy robot auction.

I also know that I can easily stop you. In the past, I’ve used Tor to make you believe I was browsing from a yurt in Mongolia or the banks of an Alaskan fjord. I’ve deployed a battalion of ad blockers and haven’t let you store so much as a snickerdoodle crumb on my computer.

But I’ve stopped all that and allowed you full access to my digital genetic code. Why? Because despite my cynicism, I believe in the power of the personalized internet. I know the vast tools that marketers have at their disposal to use my personal information to serve advertisements and onsite experiences that truly add value and are aligned with my interests. And I’m optimistic that sooner or later, the mad men will get it right.

However, for us to get there, advertisers will have to stop acting like access to my information is their right. The industry loves to throw around the claim that 63% of millennials and 58% of Gen Xers are more than happy to hand over their personal lives to brands. But marketers have badly warped this statistic. They’ve hidden behind an incomplete assertion to excuse stealing personal information from internet users while offering little in return.

The idea that the majority of millennials and gen Xers are willing to give up their data or simply don’t care about privacy is woefully misinformed. As marketing technology evolves to make data collection effortless, advertisers are showing gross levels of entitlement. Since there is minimal cost to acquire user data, lack of innovation around how to leverage that data has inevitably followed.

Instead of being so cavalier, marketers should remember that our sensitive data is simply a form of currency that we are willing to trade. You’re more than welcome to my online behavior, shopping history, current location, blood type and whatever else you need to know about me if it gets me to my desired information quicker or scores me a nice little offer. If you continue you simply disrupting me with pop-ups of vacuums because I bought a Swiffer once, please return my privacy and I’ll slide back into anonymity.

In essence, I am willing to allow you to intrude into my personal life on two conditions:

  1. You are obnoxiously transparent about what information you are gathering on me, why it is being collected and how it will be used.

For far too long, privacy rights and data collection policies have lived deep in the catacombs of websites’ terms of service, where advertisers were confident few browsers would ever find them.

Capitalizing on the ignorance of online users has always been a dubious ethical proposition but as key consumer demographics become savvier, it is less wise. Rather than masking your data collection, why not try being upfront about the information you are collecting and being even more up front about how handing over my data makes your service more valuable to me?

Long criticized for hiding the wealth of consumer information they store, Facebook has developed a best-in-class portal where they walk a user through which types of data are collected and why. But how many Facebook users have ever been near that page? If more Facebook members saw this, they might be more inclined to trust the social media giant. Instead, only 3 percent of users surveyed say that have a lot of trust in the network.

Desperate to curb the rise of ad-blocking, The Atlantic, Forbes, and several other publishers provided an interesting case study in the power of honest with users when they asked folks to allow ads to run on their site. I was more than happy to turn off my ad blocker once politely reminded me that this disruption in my experience was required to sustain quality journalism. And I wasn’t alone- Forbes found 44% of users turned off their ad blockers on the site just due to that simple request.

Sure I may slightly prefer to read my favorite news sources uninterrupted but if the fate of the fourth estate is at stake, I can surely stomach a pop-up.

2. You use this data to craft online experiences that feel like they were uniquely made for me.

Personalization has long been touted as the holy grail for marketers, but unfortunately, it remains frustratingly elusive despite the plethora of vendors in the space. According to Mckinsey, personalization done right “enhances customers’ lives and increases engagement and loyalty by delivering messages that are tuned to and even anticipate what customers really want.” Effective personalization is also the ultimate manifestation of marketers fulfilling their end of the data bargain.

The ROI of giving up my data is realized when you customize the layout of your site based on my behavior, resurface a cart of items I intended to buy when I lost service on my phone two weeks ago, or serve highly personalized product recommendations. If sacrificing my privacy results in a streamlined user journey or allows me to serendipitously discover products, content or travel destinations that interest me, the trade-off is well worth it.

So I’m speaking to you, programmatic video marketer who knows I just watched the Fifty Shades Darker trailer twice. My secret’s out, how about a targeted offer to go see this fine cinematic achievement on my stage in my local theater?

This column originally appeared in MediaPost