Online Profiling Project

Comment, P994809 / Docket No. 990811219-9219-01

WOMEN AS TARGETS: THE GENDER-BASED IMPLICATIONS OF ONLINE CONSUMER PROFILING

by

Ann Bartow[1]

The data collection issue is significant to all individuals, but is of singular importance of to women.  Women do most of the shopping in real space, and will inevitably do so in cyberspace,[2] where women are present in ever increasing numbers: Women "control 85% of all personal and household goods spending"[3] and are "the fastest-growing audience on the Web, a market expected to grow to 65 million in 2002 from 45 million today."[4] E-commerce merchants assert that "anybody who wants to make money on the Internet cannot afford to ignore [women]."[5]

In the abstract, women may be concerned about personal privacy,[6] but out surfing the web, this concern may be overshadowed by a desire to participate fully in online life.  Women are lured to special "women-oriented" web sites that efficiently facilitate the extraction of personal information. Attracted to interesting, high quality content and the promise of supportive, dynamic on-line communities, women are persuaded to actively share personal information with site owners and advertisers.  Simultaneously and often unmindfully, women also passively share information by virtue of the articles they select for reading, by participating in online discussions, and by visiting site attractions and  advertisers.  Corporate entities monitor women's on-line efforts to educate and inform themselves, support each other, and purchase goods and services for their families and themselves. Indeed, web analysts postulate that some women actually form emotional bond with certain sites, using cyber fora to create social networks for themselves.[7] E-commerce entities then attempt to exploit this networking for commercial gain.

In cyberspace women are the quarry, and companies "target" affluent women between the ages of 25 and 49, a "highly valued demographic."[8] Like women, "teenagers" are also seen as a lucrative emerging e-market.[9]  Many companies especially want to collect data from teenage women, a highly coveted audience because in addition to their purchasing power at present, they are "proto-consumers whose purchasing habits and brand identification are still soft enough to shape,"[10] and "at the very beginning of their lifetime value as a customer [sic]."[11]  Data is collected first to measure, and then ultimately to influence the popularity of consumer goods aimed at young women.

What sets so-called "women-centric" sites apart from traditional real space, hard copy women's and teen magazines is that in addition to providing content and subjecting readers to advertisements, these sites can record which articles we read and which ads catch our eyes, and collect reams of intimate personal data from each person who accesses the site.[12]  As one observer stated:

It's not just that technology collates existing information like public records in new and ways. It also creates new kinds of information. One of the most interesting is "clickstream" monitoring, a page-by-page tracking of people as they wander through the Web. Your clickstream reveals your interests and tastes with unnerving precision. (Did you go from slate.com to a Volvo dealer's Web site? Did you then buy some brie from peapod.com, the online grocery? You may be one of those limousine liberals we've been hearing  about.) And when Web merchants combine clickstream analysis with another new software technique known as "collaborative filtering," which makes educated inferences about your likes and dislikes based on comparing your user profile with others in the database, they have a marketing tool of high potential not only for customer satisfaction but also for abuse.[13]

The collection  of clickstream data enables delivery of "precisely directed, sometimes personalized, ads"[14] rabidly sought after by advertisers, so that the "targeting" of consumers can be as accurately calibrated as possible:

The utopian vision of true 'one-to-one marketing,' as e-commerce companies like to put it, is predicated on gleaning as much information as possible about a customer and building a storefront tailored to that particular individual.  After gathering personal data and tracking a shoppers movements within the site, Internet retailers can display products to suit that customer's tastes and price range, or list customized specials and sales.[15]

As a result, "an Internet user who looks up tourist information about England on a travel site . . . might be fed ads for airlines flying into Heathrow Airport and for hotels in London as he checks sports scores."[16]  No online merchants will voluntarily forgo these opportunities: The concept of online privacy "is directly as odds with one of the most attractive aspects of doing business online -- the Net's capacity for helping target marketing and advertising efforts directly at specific users."[17] Women's sites are invaluable to corporate clients for the purpose of collecting copious amounts of personal data, which, when disgorged and tabulated, places women squarely in vendors' crosshairs.  The chief executive of Women.com, after describing techniques for luring women to and through a web site with quality content, enthused, "for advertisers, it's fantastic because you're catching a consumer right in flight."[18]  Targeted marketing techniques can significantly increase the response to an advertisement, and web sites can correspondingly charge a premium for delivering ads aimed at certain users.[19] One company has even patented a "Method and apparatus for determining [the] behavioral profile of a computer user"[20] which "provides targeting of appropriate audience based on psychographic or behavioral profiles of end users" that are formed by "recording computer activity and viewing habits"  for the purpose of "continually auto-target[ing] and customiz[ing] ads for the optimal end user audience."[21]

Women's sites with compelling content will certainly make their owners wealthy.  As one commentator observed: " The Internet has changed the characteristics of information.  It used to be that a bank robber would go to a bank to steal money.  Now the information about customers is almost as valuable as the financial assets themselves."[22]  "The Internet is an absolute gold mine" of exploitable personal information, opined another.[23] Still others stated: "The digital deposits of ...[online] transactional details are so deep that the practice of exploiting their commercial value is called 'data-mining,' evoking the intensive, subterranean, and highly lucrative labors of an earlier age."[24]  At least one commercial web site illustrated how valuable it considered consumer data when it downgraded customers' ability to evaluate its products by cutting a zoom feature in order to free up bandwidth to "employ a sophisticated database that can track inventory as a user enters the site and can serve registered customers images of items they might like."[25] Further evidence of the value of personal information is provided by the actions of Free PC, a company that gave away 10,000 computers to individuals who were willing to provide extensive demographic data and accept a constant stream of advertisements.[26]

  Online clickstream tracking is intrusive.  As two observers articulated: "Imagine walking through a mall where every store, unbeknownst to you, placed a sign on your back.  The sign tells every other store you visit exactly where you have been, what you looked at, and what you purchased.  Something very close to this is possible on the Internet."[27]  And it isn't only  online transactions that will define women in cyberspace.  Some Internet marketers, in an effort to be fully comprehensive, will "[combine] information gathered from people online with vast stores of data on these same people kept by companies that compile traditional mailing lists."[28]  Indeed, "[a] series of initiatives. . . are converging to transform the browse-and-surf Internet into a giant information exchange, on that features a tug-of-war between consumers and Web sites for everything from e-mail addresses to shoe sizes."[29]

Commercial entities track which advertisements lure particular web surfers without warning users that in the process of learning about a product or service they are also educating merchants and advertisers about themselves.  In real space consumers might answer surveys or participate in focus groups, but could hardly do so without some awareness that they were giving information or being observed.  Sitting alone in a room in homes they pay for, with a computer they have purchased, accessing the web on time they are paying for, is not an activity most people would expect to have extensively monitored.  Individual internet services amass detailed records of who uses their sites, and how the sites are used, and can then cooperatively pool data "into a central database containing digital dossiers on potentially every person who surfs the Web."[30]  In fact, even the act of placing objects in online "shopping carts" but later declining to purchase them are closely observed, so that online merchants can devise ways to convert browsers to buyers, such as by giving shoppers fewer opportunities to abandon purchases so as to maximize impulse spending.[31]  Borrowing (and trampling) a cliche familiar to lawyers everywhere, this has been characterized as "mak[ing] a consumer's purchase decision as slippery a slope as possible."[32]  One online department store actually pursues shoppers who abandon large purchases, calling or e-mailing them to try to close the sale after identifying them by information knowingly or unknowingly provided.[33] There is a snowball effect, too.  The more information an entity has about individuals, the more they are able to collect.  Information from credit card purveyors documents not only  creditworthiness but also travels by recording airline or train tickets, rental cars, gasoline purchases, and hotel charges. Information from food markets gives big clues about  consumption of fat, sugar, red meat, cigarettes, and alcohol, as how many servings of fruits and vegetables one is likely imbibing.  Simply paying for a purchase by credit card may provide the vendor with our social security numbers.[34] As Professor Jerry Kang observed:

After all, personal information is what the spying business calls "intelligence" and such "intelligence" helps shift the balance of power in favor of the party who wields it. . . . [A]nother's control of our personal information can make us susceptible to a whole range of ungenerous practices.  It could subject us to influence that crosses the line between persuasion and undue influence.  Sophisticated advertisers, for example, do not merely track consumer demand; they manufacture it outright.  Detailed knowledge of who we are and what we consume makes the job of preference fabrication that much easier.[35]

Web merchants lure women to a putatively supportive site, learn about their frailties and desires in the context of the articles they read, the discussion groups they post to, the chat rooms they visit (and what they say when they are there).  In the guises of helpfulness[36] and sisterhood vendors then use this information to sell products and services to women which, free of targeted intervention, they haven't expressed or entertained desires or needs for.

Along with asserting that collecting  data helps commercial interests serve us better and perpetuates "female empowerment"[37] web site merchants also argue, that if consumers accept an offer for free content in exchange for personal information, there is an information exchange that does not infringe upon privacy interests. [38] If the terms of the exchange are mutually understood and agreed upon, and the freely conferred information is not subsequently divulged to others, nor used for any unintended, undisclosed purposes, perhaps this is a reasonable position.  However, "[f]or numerous reasons, such as transaction costs, individuals and information collectors do not generally negotiate and conclude express privacy contracts before engaging in each and every cyberspace transaction."[39]  More importantly, U.S. data merchants are loathe to rely exclusively on voluntary "information exchanges," because there is empirical evidence that when directly and openly confronted with the proposition, individuals will be unwilling to part with it without compensation,[40] and may not agree to divulge it at all.  For example, people resist filling out on-line registration forms,[41] which seem invasive, and does not have a "real space" homology.  As one commentator noted, "Imagine going to a 7-Eleven to buy a can of Coke, and having to fill out a registration form that asks you about marital status."[42] Professor Jerry Kang has persuasively argued that individuals do not generally have enough information to know the value of their personal data,[43] and perhaps they do not feel "robbed" when it is taken, but many people do feel invaded at some level. Recent studies have indicated that "Internet users are increasingly uncomfortable with the amount of personal data gathered by online companies, and as online companies become more aggressive about collecting that information."[44] One study found that 87% of people online want "complete control" over their personal data.[45]  Jerry Berman & Deirdre Mulligan of the left for Democracy and Technology have recently recounted:

[S]everal recent incidents involving the sale and disclosure of what many perceive as less sensitive information indicate a rising of privacy concerns among the public. In recent years, a number of corporations . . . have learned the hard way that consumers are prepared to protest against services that appear to infringe on their privacy. In 1996, public criticism forced Lexis-Nexis to withdraw a service known as P-Trak, which granted easy online access to a database of millions of individuals' Social Security numbers. Also in 1996, Yahoo faced a public outcry over its People Search service. The service, jointly run with a marketing list vendor, would have allowed Net searchers to put an instant finger on 175 million people, all culled from commercial mailing lists. After hearing the complaints, Yahoo decided to delete 85 million records containing unlisted home addresses. During August of 1997, American Online ("AOL") announced plans to disclose its subscribers' telephone numbers to business partners for telemarketing. AOL heard loud objections from subscribers and advocates opposed to this unilateral change in the "terms of service agreement" covering the use and disclosure of personal information. In response, AOL decided not to follow through with its proposal. [46]

Passive, sub rosa data collection techniques are therefore preferred by data base assemblers to straightforward requests for personal information, as they do not cost anything, and do not draw attention to the nature or scope of the data mining that is occurring. Passive collection may also prove more accurate, as "[s]urvey after survey has indicated that online users resent being asked for personal information, don't trust companies that do ask for such information and often -- as much as 25 percent of the time -- enter false information when prompted for personal details."[47]

Web software to block advertising is already available, and attractive to some web swimmers because in addition to keeping advertisements off screen, "ad-blocking software can mean faster performance, because files that contain ads laden with graphics and animation take far longer to load than files with text."[48] Ad-blocking utility programs sometimes include firewalls intended to prevent intrusions by hackers, and features that limit or prevent web sites from collecting clickstream data through cookie files.[49]

Not surprisingly, most web site operators and advertisers generally both fear and oppose ad-blocking software, maintaining that it will "clog their revenue stream and challenge the fundamental structure of the emerging Internet industry,"[50] and characterizing use of such software as not only unfair but practically bigoted: "The audience already allows overt advertising in mainstream media, so they must be tolerant in the context of the online model as well" stated one webtrepreneur.[51] Another maligns a desire for privacy as deviant and dishonest by analogizing ad-blocking to shoplifting, and asserts that his site uses "software code that prevents anyone using an ad blocker from even logging onto the company's site."[52]

Though technological solutions such as cookie disablement and ad-blocking software theoretically exist, both for people who like to look at advertisements but do not want their movements through commercial cyberspace tracked and recorded, as well as for those who prefer to avoid advertisements altogether, such "self help" is easily thwarted by web site operators who will simply refuse access to web swimmers who will not submit to banner ads and cookie files.[53]  Unless web sites are required to accept visitors who block ads and/or refuse cookies, technology will not effectively or consistently protect consumer privacy without effecting access.  Given the opposition to regulating the internet which flows from so many quarters, imposition of such requirements seem highly unlikely.  Similarly, use of "anonymizers, " to the extent they are even legal,[54] can be blocked by web sites.[55] Web sites can require confirmation of identity before allowing access.  Some types of cyberspace transactions make anonymity impractical anyway - when people purchase goods and services, they have to pay for them, and to provide an address for delivery.  Most people are not prepared to shoulder the burdens of losing access to some sites, navigating the complexities of an anonymous payment system such as digital cash, and obtaining "mail drops" to avoid disclosing personal data online. 

Another technological solution involves companies called "infomediaries" which will, for a price, step in and help consumers "regain control" of their personal data by providing security mechanisms that provide control over who purchases personal data and for what purpose.[56]  This takes the quixotic experience of having to pay extra to have a phone company not publish your telephone number to new extremes.  It would require each of us to buy back control of our personal data, and mean that we would have to make decisions about how much information privacy we could afford.  Online privacy should not be something that women have to purchase.

Unregulated online data collection is a threat to all consumers.  Because women do most of the shopping, and most of the "sharing," in meet space, and their presence is increasing in cyberspace, they are most vulnerable to the slings and arrows of online consumer profilers.   Do not allow women to be further targeted.  Online data collection and consumer profiling must be appropriately regulated.

Endnotes

[1] Visiting Assistant Professor of Law, University of Dayton School of Law, 300 College Park, Dayton, Ohio 45469-2772; phone (937) 229-2362; fax (937) 229-2469; e-mail bartow@udayton.edu.

[2] See "Microsoft is Starting Web Site Aimed at Women," by Laurie J. Flynn in the 2/8/99 New York Times, accessed at http://www12.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/02/biztech/articles/08net.html (citing Michael Goff, MSN's director of programming); "iVillage IPO Takes Off" by John Frederick Moore, posted to the CNN Financial News site on 3/19/99, accessed at http://cnnfn.com/digitaljam/9903/19/ivillage/index.htm ; "Web Targets Women Users: From iVillage to Oprah.com, the Net is Making a Play for the Female Market" by Martha Slud, posted to the CNN Financial News Site on 4/2/99, accessed at http://cnnfn.com/digitaljam/9904/02/women2/index.htm ("By 2002, women are projected to comprise 51 percent of all Internet users....[W]omen wield huge control over household spending and are expected to be the catalysts if and when major growth in online shopping takes place"); Malcolm Maclachlan (for TechWeb, CMPnet), "Women, Commerce Driving Latest Net Explosion" in the 6/17/99 New York Times, accessed 6/18/99 ("The number of people who bought items on the Web grew 40 percent between June 1998 and April 1999, to 28 million.  Of these, 17.4 million were men.  However, the number of women shopping online nearly doubled to 10.6 million from 5.8 million.  By contrast, the number of male shoppers grew by only 23 percent."); "Online Retailers Applaud Increase in Women Shoppers" by Bob Tedeschi in the 7/12/99 New York Times ("...the percentage of World Wide Web Shoppers who are women has jumped the last 12 months, to 38 percent from 29 percent, according to a Commercenet/Nielsen Media Research study....'The early part of the e-commerce revolution was a revolution of rich white males,' said Katherine Borsecnik, senior vice president for strategic business at America Online. 'That's changing.  And with 80 to 85 percent of household spending controlled by women, the total retail dollars involved in that change is very high.'").

[3] "The Facts: Women as a Market" accessed at http://www.oxygen.com/html/ox_vi_fact.htm (citing Women's Consumer Network); cf Mark Boal, "Women Are Easy: Why TV Ad Agencies Take Female Viewers For Granted" in the June 2 - 8, 1999 Village Voice, accessed at http://www.villagevoice.com/features/9922/boal.shtml ("[W]hen it comes to spending - the litmus test for advertisers - women match men in dollar power, and in some areas outspend them.  Total monthly credit card expenditures by women 18 to 34 exceed male spending by 2 percent, according to MediaMark, a top New York consumer research firm.")

[4] "Microsoft is Starting Web Site Aimed at Women," by Laurie J. Flynn in the 2/8/99 New York Times, accessed at http://www12.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/02/biztech/articles/08net.html

[5] "Web Targets Women Users: From iVillage to Oprah.com, the Net is Making a Play fort he Female Market" by Martha Slud, posted to the CNN Financial News Site on 4/2/99, accessed at http://cnnfn.com/digitaljam/9904/02/women2/index.htm (quoting Susan Williams Defife, President and CEO of Womenconnect.com).

[6]See, e.g., "Exploiting--and Protecting--Personal Information," by Denise Caruso, in the 3/1/99 issue of the New York Times, accessed at http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/03/biztech/articles/01digi.html ; "Privacy, Please." by Peter McGrath in the 4/15/99 issue of Newsweek, accessed at  http://www.newsweek.com/nw-srv/tnw/today/cs/cs02we_1.htm

[7] See "Web Targets Women Users: From iVillage to Oprah.com, the Net is Making a Play for the Female Market" by Martha Slud, posted to the CNN Financial News Site on 4/2/99, accessed at http://cnnfn.com/digitaljam/9904/02/women2/index.htm

[8] "iVillage IPO Takes Off" by John Frederick Moore, posted to the CNN Financial News site on

3/19/99, accessed at http://cnnfn.com/digitaljam/9903/19/ivillage/index.htm

[9] See e.g. Bob Tedeschi, "E-Commerce Sites Target Next Generation of Buyers" in the 3/29/99 issue of the New York Times, accessed at http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/03/cyber/commerce/29commerce.html

[10] "Cool Hunters Hit the Web Jungle" by Janelle Brown in Salon magazine, accessed 5/18/99 at http://www.salonmagazine.com/tech/feature/1999/05/13/smartgirl/index1.html

[11] "Cool Hunters Hit the Web Jungle" by Janelle Brown in Salon magazine, accessed 5/18/99 at http://www.salonmagazine.com/tech/feature/1999/05/13/smartgirl/index1.html (quoting Kevin Mabley, director of research at online market research firm Cyber Dialogue.)

[12] See e.g. Jerry Berman & Deirdre Mulligan, Privacy in the Digital Age: Work in Progress, 23 Nova L.

Rev. 549 at 554 ("The Internet accelerates the trend toward increased information collection, which is already evident in our offline world. The data trail, known as transactional data, left behind as individuals use the Internet is a rich source of information about their habits of association, speech, and commerce. Transactional data, click stream data, or "mouse droppings," as it is alternatively called, can include the Internet protocol address ("IP address") of the individual's computer, the browser in use, the computer type, and what the individual did on previous visits to the Web site, or perhaps even other Web sites. This data, which may or may not be enough to identify a specific individual, is captured at various points in the network and available for reuse and disclosure. Some of the data generated is essential to the operation of the network, like the phone number that connects a calling party to the intended recipient, the IP address is necessary, for without it the network cannot function. However, other pieces of data may serve purposes beyond network operation. Along with information intentionally revealed through purchasing or registration activities, this transactional data can provide a "profile" of an individual's activities. When aggregated, these digital fingerprints reveal the blueprint of an individual's life. This increasingly detailed information is bought and sold as a commodity by a growing assortment of players."); see also Jerry Kang, Information Privacy in Cyberspace Transactions, 50 Stanford L. Rev. 1193, 1223-1230 (April 1998).

[13] "Knowing You All Too Well" by Peter McGrath in Newsweek, accessed on 3/25/99 at http://www.newsweek.com/nw-srv/printed/us/st/ty0113_2.htm

[14] "Big Web Sites to Track Steps of Their Users" by Saul Hansell in the 8/16/98 issue of the New York Times, accessed at http://www.nytimes.com

[15] Bob Tedeschi, "Targeted Marketing Confronts Privacy Concerns," in the 5/10/99 New York Times, accessed at http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/05/cyber/commerce/10commerce.html

[16] "Big Web Sites to Track Steps of Their Users" by Saul Hansell in the 8/16/98 issue of the New York Times, accessed at http://www.nytimes.com

[17] "Your Profile, Please" by Andrew Leonard in Salon magazine, accessed 5/5/99 at http://www.salonmagazine.com/june97/21st/article970626.html ; ; but see "A New Model for the Internet: Fees for Services" by Denise Caruso in the 7/19/99 New York Times, accessible at http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/07/biztech/articles/19digi.html (Internet-lefted businesses are moving away from the ad-supported business model and toward the transaction model).

[18] Quoted in "Online Retailers Applaud Increase in Women Shoppers" by Bob Tedeschi in the 7/12/99 New York Times, accessible at http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/07/cyber/commerce/12commerce.html

[19] "Big Web Sites to Track Steps of Their Users" by Saul Hansell in the 8/16/98 issue of the New York Times, accessed at http://www.nytimes.com

[20] U.S. Patent No. 5848396, issued 12/8/98 to Freedom of Information, Inc. (Thomas A. Gerace, Inventor).

[21] Abstract of U.S. Patent No. 5848396, issued 12/8/98 to Freedom of Information, Inc. (Thomas A. Gerace, Inventor).

[22] Julie Williams, chief counsel of the Comptroller of the Currency, a federal agency that oversees banking  activities, quoted in Bob Tedeschi, "Targeted Marketing Confronts Privacy Concerns" in the 5/10/99 New York Times, accessed at http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/05/cyber/commerce/10commerce.html ; see also "Can Merchants Buy Loyal Customers?" by Bob Tedeschi in the 9/19/99 New York Times, accessible at http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/07/cyber/commerce/19commerce.html.

[23] Jerry Kang, a law professor at U.C.L.A., quoted in "Your Profile, Please" by Andrew Leonard in Salon  magazine, accessed 5/5/99 at http://www.salonmagazine.com/june97/21st/article970626.html

[24] Jerry Berman & Deirdre Mulligan, Privacy in the Digital Age: Work in Progress, 23 Nova L. Rev. 549 at 571-72 (Winter 1999).

[25] Jonathan Morris, executive vice president of Bluefly, a discount apparel retailer, quoted in "Seeking Ways to Cut the Web-Page Wait" by Bob Tedeschi, in the 6/14/99 New York Times, accessed at http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/06/cyber/commerce/14commerce.html

[26] See "The Information Exchange Economy" by Debra Aho Williamson, posted 4/30/99 to the CNN site, accessed at http://www.cnn.com/TECH/computing/9904/30/infoexchange.idg/

[27] Jerry Berman & Deirdre Mulligan, Privacy in the Digital Age: Work in Progress, 23 Nova L. Rev. 549, 558 (Winter 1999).

[28] "Big Web Sites to Track Steps of Their Users" by Saul Hansell in the 8/16/98 issue of the New York Times, accessed at http://www.nytimes.com (Adforce Inc.,  of Cupertino, California, is "seeking to persuade Internet service providers to give [it] the name and address of each visitor as he or she surfs.  Adforce would then instantly retrieve demographic and buying-habit data kept by Metromail about that person and use it to display advertisements aimed at him or her.")

[29] "The Information Exchange Economy" by Debra Aho Williamson, posted 4/30/99 to the CNN site, accessed at http://www.cnn.com/TECH/computing/9904/30/infoexchange.idg/

[30] "Big Web Sites to Track Steps of Their Users" by Saul Hansell in the 8/16/98 issue of the New York Times, accessed at http://www.nytimes.com

[31]Bob Tedeschi, "Internet Retailers Work to Turn Shoppers Into Buyers" in the 3/8/99 New York Times, accessed at http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/03/cyber/commerce/08commerce.html

[32] Andy Halliday, vice president for Excite's commerce decision, quoted in Bob Tedeschi, "Internet Retailers Work to Turn Shoppers Into Buyers" in the 3/8/99 New York Times, accessed at http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/03/cyber/commerce/08commerce.html

[33] Bob Tedeschi, "Internet Retailers Work to Turn Shoppers Into Buyers" in the 3/8/99 New York Times, accessed at http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/03/cyber/commerce/08commerce.html

[34] Se e.g. "Forget Big Brother" by Peter H. Lewis in the 3/19/98 issue of the New York Times (expressing consternation that the Holiday Inn chain used his Social Security number as his hotel membership number, apparently after obtaining it on its own initiative.).

[35] Jerry Kang, Information Privacy in Cyberspace Transactions, 50 Stanford L. Rev. 1193, 1215-16 (April 1998).

[36] Bob Tedeschi, "Targeted Marketing Confronts Privacy Concerns," in the 5/10/99 New York Times, accessed at http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/05/cyber/commerce/10commerce.html ("...Internet retailers are ... hoping customers view their [one-to-one marketing] efforts as helpful, not intrusive.)

[37] See e.g. "Cool Hunters Hit the Web Jungle" by Janelle Brown in Salon magazine, accessed 5/18/99 at http://www.salonmagazine.com/tech/feature/1999/05/13/smartgirl/index1.html (Smartgirl founder Isabel Walcott sees her website as a pro-girl cause, and claims girls visiting site "feel really empowered.").

[38] See e.g. The Information Exchange Economy" by Debra Aho Williamson, posted 4/30/99 to the CNN site, accessed at http://www.cnn.com/TECH/computing/9904/30/infoexchange.idg/

[39] Jerry Kang, Information Privacy in Cyberspace Transactions, 50 Stanford Law Review 1193, 1248 (April 1998).

[40] See e.g The Information Exchange Economy" by Debra Aho Williamson, posted 4/30/99 to the CNN site, accessed at http://www.cnn.com/TECH/computing/9904/30/infoexchange.idg/ (recounts "signs of the information-exchange economy" and gives examples of web entities that provide goods and services in exchange for personal information, quoting Seth Godin, VP of direct marketing at Yahoo and author of "Permission Marketing," for the proposition that without the inducement of a specific reward or benefit, consumers will not provide personal information like phone numbers.)

[41] Bob Tedeschi, "Internet Retailers Work to Turn Shoppers Into Buyers" in the 3/8/99 New York Times, accessed at http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/03/cyber/commerce/08commerce.html

[42] William Bryant, Chairman of Opass, a company that has developed a billing system for e-commerce  sites, quoted in Bob Tedeschi, "Internet Retailers Work to Turn Shoppers Into Buyers" in the 3/8/99 New  York Times, accessed at http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/03/cyber/commerce/08commerce.html

[43] Jerry Kang, Information Privacy in Cyberspace Transactions, 50 Stanford Law Review 1193, 1246 - 1267 (April 1998).

[44] Bob Tedeschi, "Targeted Marketing Confronts Privacy Concerns," in the 5/10/99 New York Times, accessed at http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/05/cyber/commerce/10commerce.html ; see e.g. Marcia Stepanek, "The Privacy Backlash" in Salon, accessed at http://www.salonmagazine.com/march97/news/news2970304.html (Parents reacted negatively to a school district's proposal to create a database with 1,200 pieces of information on each school student, including information about medical histories and family income); but see "Can Merchants Buy Loyal Customers?" by Bob Tedeschi in the 9/19/99 New York Times, accessible at http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/07/cyber/commerce/19commerce.html (" . . according to a study released last week by Privacy and American Business in conjunction with the Opinion Research Corporation, 53% of Net users say they would participate in an Internet program that exchanged benefits for information, if the program fully explained how that information would be used.")

[45] "Exploiting -- and Protecting -- Personal Information" by Denise Caruso in the 3/1/99 New York Times, accessible at http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/03/biztech/articles/01digi.html (referencing 1997 Georgia Tech survey).

[46] Jerry Berman & Deirdre Mulligan, Privacy in the Digital Age: Work in Progress, 23 Nova L. Rev. 549 at 564-65 (Winter 1999); see also Jerry Kang, Information Privacy in Cyberspace Transactions, 50 Stanford Law Review 1193, 1197 notes 11 &12 (April 1998); "Exploiting -- and Protecting -- Personal Information" by Denise Caruso in the 3/1/99 New York Times, accessible at http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/03/biztech/articles/01digi.html

[47] "Your Profile, Please" by Andrew Leonard in Salon magazine, accessed 5/5/99 at http://www.salonmagazine.com/june97/21st/article970626.html

[48] "Software Ad Blockers Challenge Web Industry" by Laurie J. Flynn in the 6/7/99 New York Times, accessed at http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/06/biztech/articles/07adco.html

[49] "Software Ad Blockers Challenge Web Industry" by Laurie J. Flynn in the 6/7/99 New York Times, accessed at http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/06/biztech/articles/07adco.html

[50] "Software Ad Blockers Challenge Web Industry" by Laurie J. Flynn in the 6/7/99 New York Times, accessed at http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/06/biztech/articles/07adco.html

[51] Scott Mathias, managing editor of ITVWorld.com, quoted in "Software Ad Blockers Challenge Web Industry" by Laurie J. Flynn in the 6/7/99 New York Times, accessed at http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/06/biztech/articles/07adco.html

[52] "Software Ad Blockers Challenge Web Industry" by Laurie J. Flynn in the 6/7/99 New York Times, accessed at http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/06/biztech/articles/07adco.html , citing Charles Arruda, a vice president of Channelseek.

[53] See e.g. NYT, see "They're Watching You" by Hiawatha Bray in the 2/11/99 issue of the Boston Globe.

[54] See Jerry Kang, Information Privacy in Cyberspace Transactions, 50 Stanford L. Rev. 1193, 1244 (April 1998).

[55] Jerry Kang has pointed out that anonymity comes in shades: Even when a specific personal is not identified facially, the individual may be identifiable in context or with additional research.  Jerry Kang, Information Privacy in Cyberspace Transaction, 50 Stanford L. Rev. 1193, 1209 (April 1998).

[56] See e.g.  "Exploiting -- and Protecting -- Personal Information" by Denise Caruso in the 3/1/99 New York Times, accessed at http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/03/biztech/articles/01digi.html