Jim Choate writes:

What would motivate an average consumer to use an anonymous remailer?

Clearly simple anonymity or writing nasty letters to Grandma anonymously are not going to motivate most folks irrespective of cost - they simply have no interest in such activities. So, the question becomes:

What besides raising hell anonymously, laundering money, and defeating merchant purchase traffic analysis are commercial anonymous remailers good for?

Well, maybe the avenue to pursue isn't the average consumer, but the average employee. I don't doubt that at least some companies are under email traffic analysis by their competitors (and/or their competitor's governments) to get a clue about future directions for their products. I could see where many (eventually most) companies would send email to each other using remailers, so that only the companies involved know that they communicated with each other. Internet email doesn't provide the same level of privacy that snail mail, phones, and faxes do now. With the use of remailers, Internet email could provide more privacy than snail mail, phones, or faxes. ========================================================== Mark Leighton Fisher Thomson Consumer Electronics fisherm@indy.tce.com Indianapolis, IN "Their walls are built of cannon balls, their motto is 'Don't Tread on Me'"