IF the role of government is to smooth the path for the nation into the future, the Howard Government stands condemned in the face of the privacy debate.
Fear is one of the biggest barriers to people embracing the online economy.
These fears include technophobia, fear of credit card fraud, and now fear of the unauthorised collection and use of private information. Protecting the privacy of personal information has attracted the attention of many public policy makers over the years. Massive increases in computing power, new ways to collect information and powerful cross-referencing applications have created a formidable set of tools that allow private corporations to build up comprehensive profiles on people and their lives. The inherent value is the ability of private companies to then use these profiles to target potential customers for the purpose of increasing sales. Improving the ratio of sales revenues to advertising costs is always a good thing, as it bears directly on the bottom line.