A British agency in charge of consumer protection has begun a formal investigation of Mondex, a company that offers smart card-based payment systems, for allegedly falsely advertising that transactions under its system were anonymous. In reality, each card used in the system has a 16 digit identifying number which is captured by the merchant and transmitted to the bank each day. The merchants readers can retain up to 500 records at one time. The investigation began after Simon Davies, a Law Fellow at the University of Essex and Director General of Privacy International, filed a complaint. Consumers can still get their catalogs and other direct-mail pitches by checking a box or clicking a mouse.
Companies can still get data for marketing by asking for it.
It would cause some inconvenience for businesses, which face increased costs to persuade customers to give up their privacy. The reality is that the absence of government prodding has resulted in too many companies doing too little to protect consumers' privacy rights. Perhaps the USA Today position is not surprising. Mr. Avrahami appeared last week on CNN and National Public Radio as favorable articles appeared in newspapers across the country. Also included is the letter sent to Hillary Clinton in April 1993 by leading privacy advocates, computer scientists, and policy experts recommending that the Social Security Number not be used as a patient record identifier.