Finalists in Virgin Mobile's National Fearless Day contest get free background and criminal record checks along with their cash prize.

Virgin Mobile wants Canadians to join the hunt for the most fearless among us. Know what we fear? Massive privacy invasion!

The contest involves posting a one minute video of yourself, doing something fearless, on YouTube. Skydiving or swimming with sharks are listed as prime examples of activities fearless Canadians partake in. On November 19th, the chosen few will participate in a contest to prove their mettle, held in Toronto. The grand prize is $5,000 and a hang-out with the company’s mountain conquering, hot-air-balloon-flying, vaguely-James-Bond-Villainish owner Sir Richard Branson.

What’s the catch you ask? According to section three of the contest rules:

Finalists authorize Virgin Mobile, upon its request, to conduct civil, criminal, financial, driver-history and other background checks as may be deemed necessary by Virgin Mobile and agree to facilitate Virgin Mobile’s ability to review a Finalist’s presence on social networking sites.

Put simply, Sir Richard and his merry band at Virgin get to do everything but root through your garbage to ensure they know more about you than you do, before they put your face next to their logo. Yes, Virgin Mobile has actually put a price on privacy, and it reads $2,000 – $5,000.

[photo credit: johnathanb1989, used under Creative Commons licence]