"Here is the password I use for potentially important information, and here is the email and phone number that would likely be associated with that password. Let me know when your database get's hacked so that way I can change my password and we can do this exercise again."

Something like that you mean?

You don't need to give them your password or phone number, just the email address associated with your account(s). Adding a phone number would be optional.

You don't get it. If your account shows up in their database, then they'll have your email + password + phone number + any other data you provided.

What he means is this: you subscribe by telling the site your email. Then, if they ever find your email in one of the publicly released documents, then they will notify you by email.

What if your email is the account being compromised?

I guess thats why you might add a mobile number

Huh? You don't need to give them anything except for your email address. They only look for your email address in the compromised databases.

Yes you do if you subscribe for notifications.

I still don't understand. Why?

The OP comment was: "It'd be cool if they added an option to subscribe for $10/year for a quick SMS and email notification if your account is compromised. I'd get it for myself and my family."

To enable this - you are giving your email, password, Payment details and Cell Phone number. The site as it stands today doesn't ask for any of this -- but if they were to take payments and do SMS notification they would.

If we decided to do notifications I would expect users to not re-use passwords from other sites. I would also expect that such a service would require a trusted security brand behind it to work.

Thanks for the idea! Over the weekend me and a buddy launched a service that does exactly this. You can see it at www.hacknotifier.com - we'd love any feedback you have.

Yeah I'd probably buy it. And they'd get bought by Symantec or McAfee if the list gets big enough.