PaidContent breaks the story that the Grey Lady is investing in Root/Markets, which is creating a market to trade consumer information.

From a recent Forbes article:

Root has developed a software program that allows consumers essentially to spy on themselves, sending every click into a “vault” of information at Root that can be stored, edited and used to the individual’s liking.

Here’s where the market comes in. Individuals using RootVault can make their data available to marketers they want to reach. For example, someone looking for a new apartment could make their personal data available to mortgage lenders and real-estate agents.

Root’s idea is to create bundles of customer leads that would trade like futures contracts on the exchange.

Root takes a fee from both sides of the transaction–the publishers or sellers of ad leads, and the advertisers or buyers. Root also would act the way a stock-exchange specialist would, by stepping in and buying or selling contracts in the event of a market imbalance.

Cofounder Lew Ranieri, and original Wall Street Master of the Universe, has put up about $5 million. The overall around for Root/Markets is $12 million. More details of the investment.

I was sending my clickstream to Root and then I started keeping it on my hard drive. I want to look at the data and see what’s going on before I publicly post my browsing habits. I can’t seem to create a default exchange with pc4media, says the request is pending and the Status is disabled. Let me know if you want to create an exchange together.