Mac Norton wrote:
Of course not. Unilateral offers can be made to a defined class of persons and accepted by action thereon. An old principle, but valid still.
Yes but the problem faced by e-commerce is what happens when it fails. So, while I agree with you that it is not true that "for e-commerce to fulfill its potential each party to a transaction must be confident in the identity of the others", the practice in e-commerce is that security is based on breaking your privacy! And this is not only in terms of credit checks but also in covert background checks teaming up with law enforcement (as candidly admitted by eBay management in a meeting in DC some months ago). Cheers, Ed Gerck
MacN
On Thu, 16 Nov 2000, Greg Broiles wrote:
It has been conventional wisdom that, for e-commerce to fulfill its potential, each party to a transaction must be confident in the identity of the others.