文章基本信息

标题：Privacy drivers
作者：Mona Doyle
期刊名称：The Shopper Report
印刷版ISSN：1077-5099
出版年度：2005
卷号：Dec 2005
出版社：Consumer Network, Inc,

Privacy drivers

Mona Doyle

Privacy is turning into a safety issue for many shoppers. Shredders are becoming important gift products. Sponsored shredding events are attracting a new breed of concerned consumer who finds joy as well as safety in the public purges. Shoppers are cheerfully submitting proofs of their identity at each transaction and welcoming those who would protect them from the latest incarnations of Big Brother.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Hearing consumers talk of being frightened of Google's threat to their privacy immediately after hearing them express anger and disappointment at Target is a quick reminder of the fragility of business success and consumer trust. Consumers are now blaming the Bush Administration as well as Google and General Motors for bad management.

* "Sears' is a terrible disappointment."

* "Wal-Mart deserves all the flack it's getting."

* "Supermarkets have failed to keep up."

* "All the big companies have begun spying on us."

The idea that big companies are spying is being heavily promoted by privacy advocates who are intent on scaring the bijeeps out of the willing, the skeptical, and all the doomsday seers.

The "Spychips.com" website explains that the new "chips can be read from a distance, right through your clothes, wallet, backpack or purse -- without your knowledge or consent -- by anybody with the right reader device. In a way, it gives strangers x-ray vision powers to spy on you, to identify both you and the things you're wearing and carrying. Unlike the bar code, RFID could be bad for your health. RFID supporters envision a world where RFID reader devices are everywhere - in stores, in floors, in doorways, on airplanes -- even in the refrigerators and medicine cabinets of our own homes. In such a world, we and our children would be continually bombarded with electromagnetic energy. Researchers do not know the long-term health effects of chronic exposure to the energy emitted by these reader devices."

Whew! I think there is probably a market for antidotes! Perhaps for Chipless Stores, as well as chipfree products!

Happy Holidays, Mona Doyle