meinVZ is free for members and mainly finances itself through advertising. There are different advertising formats, some of which can be shown to specific target groups. Personal information will at no point be passed on. VZ provides information to the advertiser about which target groups have seen, and clicked on, a banner. This information is completely anonymous.
In "Privacy" under Advertising settings you can select whether or not you would like to be shown target-group specific advertising.
Pay per view: A company pays money for their advert to be displayed and seen by visitors. The is usually calculated according to the number of people who visit the page each day.
Pay per click: Under this billing method, the provider of the website showing the advert will only be paid money by the company when a visitor actually clicks on the advert, thereby bringing up a page which the advert leads to.
Pay per action: Many websites require that visitors register in order to use their functions or services. Under this billing method, the company only has to pay when this happens (someone registers, for example).