Most people hold out for a lot less.
Every day seems to bring fresh evidence that the two concepts don't go together, and fresh outrage over the news. Just in the last few weeks, several advocacy groups called for a boycott of Intel because of its new Pentium III chip, which carries a unique serial number that could allow Web users to be more easily identified and tracked. The Internet is the place where we seem to cherish rights to anonymity that we've happily given up in nearly every other arena of our lives. People who gladly hand over a signed credit card slip to a perfect stranger, placidly watch the Blockbuster cashier scan their video rentals with a laser reader, and optimistically drop their business cards into a drawing for a free lunch, suddenly seem to panic at the notion of anyone online knowing anything about them. Part of the anxiety is undoubtedly due to the terra incognita factor, and the fact that everything Internet- related is hyped either as an unprecedented menace or an unprecedented marvel.