Re: 3 Proposals: session ID, business-card auth, customer auth

Hello,

Dale wrote:
> On Jul 19,  6:35pm, James Pitkow wrote:
> > 
> > Now, if you enable mechanisms that permit log files to contain ids across
> > sites AND you do not impose a policy to protect users, then the information
> > enabling technology called the Web, potentially becomes a disabling
> > technology.  To me, the Web is about information exchange, not information
> > concealment, elitism, or "I'll give you this only if you give me that."
> 
> I'm getting uncomfortable that you are attaching
> your policy to technical capabilities.  The information
> provider and the customer should negotiate policy.  The system should
> have every capability that's possible and practical in such an arrangement.  

I agree with you.  What I think we can balance these needs (this reached moderate
consensus yesterday) by having browsers change session ids per site. 
All to often technology does not take policy into account.  I'm glad to
this group is able air issues that are both policy and technology in nature.

> more information than we can get now?  It is based on the strange
> belief that if you know more, you can direct your actions more
> effectively.  Businesses believe that
> the more they know about their customers, the better they can
> serve them.  If they don't have direct contact with the customers,
> they pay lots of money to conduct surveys of prospective or
> actual customers to learn as much as they can.  Why did you do
> your WWW survey if there wasn't value in knowing more about Web
> users?

Again, I agree. Quality of service is important and so is privacy.
Our surveys aim to do exactly that, provide insight into who's out
there in a manner that imposes no cost barrier to those who want it.  
We protect the identity of all users who respond and  are still able
to release the datasets.

> Besides, I'll bet you subscribe to a few magazines, several of
> which are free because you give them lots of demographic information
> on the subscription form that allows the publisher to portray
> you as a CPU-intensive kind of guy. 

You are right - I'm very CPU intensive, but I do not subscribe to
any magazines :(  

Regards,
Jim.

Received on Wednesday, 19 July 1995 20:49:44 UTC