Back Free Stuff Coming Soon . Microsoft is investigating a vulnerability in Internet Explorer that could give attackers free rein in reading known files on targeted computers. Logging on to Amazon using Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator resulted higher or lower prices for the same movie. When contacted, an Amazon spokesperson responded that the price differences were merely a test to evaluate the effects of several site variables including price, page layout and content. Amazon denied that the price differences were based on a user profile.
Price discrimination is nothing new.
Catalogue merchants have been know to issue different catalogues to different customers based on past purchases. Online price discrimination is a little more problematic because it's very easy to perform and the shopper is usually not even aware that it's going on. A contributor to Slashdot jokingly suggested that online shoppers could sell browser cookies to one another. But instead of trading cookies with other shoppers, you can manage your online profiles with tools like Freedom and save yourself from a merchant's discriminatory label. As profiling techniques get more and more sophisticated, the economic value of a personal profile will become more apparent and those with the foresight to keep their personal data from becoming public domain will be better able to realize its economic value.