This chapter I thought brought together so many aspects of things we talked about this semester in class, from the ethical side to RFID technology. One thing it really made me think about was how on a daily basis I create a paper trail now personally, I really don't care about the paper trail because I integrate not only my Credit Cards but also my bank accounts with Quicken and it helps to track expenses and to stay on a budget for myself and my family. But I think one thing Garfinkel does not go into a depth is in this area:
Pretty much everyone today on a daily basis create the same paper trail with debit and credit cards as well as other forms of spending or ID's. An FSU card is a great example for freshman on campus. For most of these freshman it is their dorm key, laundry and soda card, meal plan card, student ID, library card and debit card. All these freshman go about their business on campus thinking presumably that they are receiving value added services; having only to worry about their single card. Comparing this to myself and others that use Quicken or even just like the reward features of credit cards. It not like people don't get value or convenience in return for their information, they get these features and in return credit card companies as well as other IT firms such as EZ-pass get their information.
I do like how Garfinkel at the end of the chapter states that their alternatives to the EZ-pass features. Stating that an automatic withdrawal feature would protect consumers even more. This idea of anonymous purchasing is something I see a couple of companies really taking a hold of. Two being paypal which has been in this for a long hall, and secondly Google checkout. I'm not sure about paypal but I know Google checkout says they will not sell your spending habits to third parties. This is what I think the future is companies like this, that protect it's customer's which I guess you can say is a new form of value added services.
1 comment:
After reading this book I have definitely thought twice about using a credit card or debit card and creating a paper trail. I will be sure to use cash as much as possible in the future. I had never really thought about protecting my privacy in that way but it makes perfect sense. Before I was only concerned with identity theft but this book really made me think about other ways a person’s privacy could be invaded.
I like the fact that Google checkout tells the consumer they will not sell his or her spending habits to a third party. It just shows that companies do know what they are doing and can fix a problem without government intervention and create a competitive advantage at the same time. While it won’t be a competitive advantage for long as others follow suit, people will remember that Google was one of the first to take a consumers privacy into consideration.
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