At 10:01 AM 5/31/96 -0700, Sandy Sandfort wrote:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SANDY SANDFORT ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

...

Two quick answers:

1) What big business wants and what it would be willing to accept in order to make sales, are two different things. While demographic data are nice, an more robust economy full of big spenders is better.

2) Big businesses are made up of individuals. Most individuals would still prefer to have their own privacy preserved even if they would prefer less privacy for others.

I think what most people want is no surprises, by that I mean that peoples perceptions of privacy should match reality. In many cases that will mean no demographics. However there are a lot of situations where people will trade information for something they perceive as having value. I see nothing wrong with this *if* there is informed consent. John Pettitt, jpp@software.net EVP, CyberSource Corporation, 415 473 3065 PGP Key available at: http://www-swiss.ai.mit.edu/htbin/pks-extract-key.pl?op=get&search=0xB7AA3705