A central contradiction exists between the goals of e-commerce and continued growth in Internet use.
For the business model of Web commerce to work, companies need continued access to customers. Yet surveys show that users are increasingly concerned over spam and unwanted contacts.
With e-commerce approaching the crucible of holiday shopping, some clues may emerge as to whether the buying public still likes the idea of online transactions at the cost of personal privacy.
The problem has gotten so out of control that users are turning away from e-commerce and even e-mail. In the past few months the amount of junk coming into my e-mail account has increased to where I now receive about equal parts wanted and unwanted contacts.
With all the anquish about business-to-consumer Web commerce, I have yet to see a vendor that promises never to contact a purchaser again. It would be simple to do: “Check here if you desire no further contact from this company or any of its clients.”
And yet to do so would violate the fundamental business model behind e-commerce and the growth of the Web. Companies must be able to contact you again and again for their investors or shareholders–to say nothing of the advertisers on their site–to keep the faith.
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There are times when the computer seems possessed by a Web vendor. Most notorious in this aspect is RealNetworks. Download the latest version of Real Jukebox or Player and your computer seems to take on a will of its own, with flashing icons, pop-up boxes and a terminal case of screen clutter.
There may be hope of resolving the dilemma. Two veterans of the PC world have offered a new service to block out junk contacts. Drummond Reed’s OneName and its associated server component, XNSORG, overseen by Macintosh “Tidbits” newsletter publisher Adam Engst, provide a promising strategy in the fight against spam.
The idea behind OneName is wonderfully simple. You and the people who e-mail you are bound by a real-time contractual arrangement not to bother one another with garbage. You promise not to send junk someone else’s way. Those contacting you promise not to send junk your way.
For the system to work, of course, lots of users need to sign up. The theory is that support for the arrangement–through millions of Internet users as well as Internet service providers–will drive e-commerce vendors to go along with the arrangement.
The beauty of the system is that the user gets to decide what kind of contact to accept. If you are in the market for a new car, you might want to hear from Ford or Volkswagen. Once you buy the car, however, you have the ability under the OneName system to shut off contact.
As for the anonymous spammers, they never even make it to your mail box.
A cold-eyed skeptic’s view would say that Reed and Engst are dreamers here. Web vendors will never go for a system that restricts their ability to market, market, market.
But you can help send a message by signing up. You have nothing to lose–the first 1 million logons are being given away free. So far, more than 35,000 users have signed on. A major ISP, FreeInternet.com, will support the service, and more than 50 others have indicated interest.