Re: Automatic Entry and Forms

>Nice idea, but that dog won't hunt.

>All it takes is for one person to cry out, "With this feature, people
>can capture your user info and start a dossier on you, even when you
>don't allow them to have it." and all your work and thought just went
>out the door.

I am very well aware of the privacy issues involved. I recently spent 
two days at a workshop making precisely those noises to Nielsen, Gallup
and the massed ranks of the advertising industry.

The idea would be to provide personalised _defaults_. I was not
proposing a mechanism whereby the browser would automatically enter the 
data and submit the form. The user would still make the decision to
send or not send the data.


>Netscape just decided to redo their cookies for exactly that reason. 

I am aware of that situation. There is a general privacy issue but I do not 
believe that it is involved in this case. It would make it easier for a user to 
reveal demographic data to a site but would not allow a server to obtain that 
information without their permission. The privacy issue turns on consent.

		Phill

Received on Friday, 23 February 1996 14:32:46 UTC