From: tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)
Date: Sat, 1 Jun 1996 11:31:17 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Something that just crossed my mind. Sorry.
Message-ID: <add4a150040210043125@[205.199.118.202]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 5:01 PM 5/31/96, Sandy Sandfort wrote:

>At 10:35 PM 5/30/96 -0500, snow wrote:
>
>>It is my position (until proven wrong--please) that larger business DON'T
>>want anonymity. They _want_ to be able to track purchases and use of their
>>product for several reasons.
>
>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.

To add to this point, "all XYZ is economics." (Crypto, security, customer
preferences, etc.)

A K-Mart or Radio Shack might place a value on any customer's spending
preferences at, for instance, $0.035 per $100 spent. This is just a figure
I'm inventing to make a point; market researchers within K-Mart or Radio
Shack probably have better estimates.

Thus, if customers give information away for "free," as many do, then a
Radio Shack will naturally try to collect this information. Even better if
they can get info about earning power, neighborhood, magazines subscribed
to, etc. Some stores try to collect this information.

In any case, few stores will turn down a sale because this $0.035 or even
$0.10 "value" is denied to them.

It's always about economics.

--Tim May

Boycott "Big Brother Inside" software!
We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed.
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
tcmay@got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Licensed Ontologist         | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."