Do credit card protection systems really work?

There are times when I pay in cash, people look at me strange like they don't know how to handle that transaction and think real hard when trying to figure out my change......even though it's on the register screen.

It is frustrating to pay for a monitor service for a file someone else who sells it usually with out my knowledge. I don't think we get our money's worth but I don't believe there is another way.
I would like to be able to hold the organization responsible for delivering my information to whom ever pays them.

I recently did some investigating when my records were exposed as part of the OPM data breach as well as the Anthem data breach. Both offered me a year or two of free credit monitoring by signing up with a couple of different credit monitoring services. I found the experts pretty divided, with many holding the view of NOT signing up for the services even when they were offered for free. Here are four links with some good discussions and explorations of the different views, along with some good links and methods for monitoring your own credit health. Not that it's worth much, but I decided not to use a credit monitoring service and to continue to be my own monitoring service.
https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0235-identity-theft-protection-services
https://www.privacyrights.org/identity-theft-monitoring-services
http://krebsonsecurity.com/2014/03/are-credit-monitoring-services-worth-it/
http://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/pros-cons-credit-monitoring-services-1282.php