Eventually, most people will have an e-mail package that involves communication with an online service and a payment mechanism. If the e-mail turns out to be useful, you can set a rule canceling charges for that sender. Legitimate senders may decide to bet that you will want to read the e-mail and will cancel the charge. Internet service providers will probably get involved in running the payment scheme, Dyson suggested. Trust on the Internet Privacy is another area where self-regulation may work.
People get to choose their toothpaste and their breakfast cereal.
OPS requires that consumers understand what data they are revealing. In fact, cookies today are unintelligible. OPS promises to clarify what information your browser provides to Web sites, and it lets you tag each piece of data and indicate to whom you want it revealed. It's not a self-regulatory organization, Dyson explained, but a means of providing a jurisdiction outside national boundaries. The mechanism is enforceable once a customer does business at a site.