CDR: Re: Public Key Infrastructure: An Artifact...

Ed Gerck egerck at nma.com
Thu Nov 16 18:29:25 PST 2000



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.
> > >





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