Need to know

There appears to be a bit of friction between the credit and sales departments, on the one side, and the marketing department on the other. That is, when collecting information from consumers, what is more important, can we do a sale? or what demographic does this sale represent?

A recent study suggests that most privacy concerns of consumers could be alleviated if companies limited the information they require from consumers to a simple, can you afford the sale?, rather than collect the entire life-habits of the consumer. It's a matter of "let's do a deal" rather than "now tell me all about yourself".

We can have ‘win-win’ on security vs. privacy

People think there has to be a choice between privacy and security; that increased security means more collection and processing of personal private information. However, in a challenging report to be published on Monday 26 March 2007, The Royal Academy of Engineering says that, with the right engineering solutions, we can have both increased privacy and more security.

One of the issues that Dilemmas of Privacy and Surveillance – challenges of technological change looks at is how we can buy ordinary goods and services without having to prove who we are. For many electronic transactions, a name or identity is not needed; just assurance that we are old enough or that we have the money to pay.

In short, authorisation, not identification should be all that is required.