Thank you for your response Stacey. Even though I can see how services can be improved by the collection of data, I personally don’t like handing it over to businesses because I do not think businesses are taking enough precautions to look after it. One prime example being Target and the data breach that occurred back in 2013. I found the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner rather informative when trying to understand the ways businesses manage personal data. Unfortunately, in Australia it is only mandatory for businesses that handle Personally Controlled Electronic Health Records (PCEHR) to notify the public of data breaches.
Your question regarding library patrons being cranky if their library was offering their data up to a 3rd party through the access to one of their services, I think that there will always be users who are cranky with 3rd party gaining access to their data. This is why a library would need to be transparent when offering a service that was linked with a 3rd party. I think users should always be given the option to opt-out of a service like this and that patrons should feel they have control over what a library does with the data they are collecting on them. I still think that patron would have a lot to gain from allowing a 3rd party to offer a recommendation service if they were to give up some data relating to their lending habits so they can help predict users needs and identify new business opportunities.