Today, the company is also the second-biggest provider of credit cards in the United States. The death of brand loyalty, which has forced companies to stalk elusive consumers with databases filled with personal information. In an attempt to stay ahead of the competition, Kraft General Foods has compiled a database of more than 30 million users of the company's products. The goal is to sell Kraft items more successfully using direct marketing techniques. Thanks to increased computing power, Fingerhut Co., a U.S. mail-order firm, is expanding its collection of customer data to two trillion characters.
New technology does more than profoundly increase the opportunities to use personal information.
It also enhances the possibility of errors. An important facet of privacy in the 1990s is the accuracy of personal information. As a result of these and other recent trends, consumer unease about privacy has become rampant. These fundamental changes in the marketplace raise concerns that businesses, consumer groups and governments are struggling to address. While companies attempt to accommodate the public's growing concerns about privacy, consumers are aggressively protecting the uses to which their personal information can be put.