DISADVANTAGES — CONSUMER/INTERNET — HURTS BUSINESS 423

IMPACTS

INTERNET FIRMS ARE THE MOST POWERFUL FORCE FOR JOB CREATION

JUBE SHIVER Jr., TIMES STAFF WRITER, Los Angeles Times, March 12, 2000, SECTION: Part A; Page 1; TITLE: INTERNET FIRMS GAIN FOOTHOLD IN WASHINGTON// acs-VT2001

"When I go on the Hill I tell people this is a jobs issue," said Josh Isay, a former aide to Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) who was hired in January by DoubleClick to head its Washington office. "Of the last 300,000 created in New York state, one-third came from Internet sector, outpacing financial institutions and real estate. So, in order for this economy to continue humming like it is, it is very important that government sees high-tech as the engine of economic development."

THE USA IS IN A POSITION TO DOMINATE GLOBAL E-COMMERCE

The Economist, February 26, 2000 , TITLE: First America, then the world // acs-EE2001

SOMETHING like three-quarters of all e-commerce currently takes place in the United States. The country also accounts for 90% of commercial websites. Given that the Internet is, by its very nature, global in reach, these two facts raise a vital question about e-commerce for the rest of the world: is America in general, and are American websites in particular, inevitably going to dominate it?

INFORMAL INFORMATION NETWORKS BENEFIT CONSUMERS, AND CREDIT REPORTING AGENCIES ARE AN EXAMPLE

Solveig Singleton, director of information studies at the Cato Institute, January 22, 1998 Cato Policy Analysis No. 295 PRIVACY AS CENSORSHIP: A Skeptical View of Proposals to Regulate Privacy in the Private Sector http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-295.html // acs-EE2001

The evolution of formal information networks such as consumer credit reporting has important benefits for the public as a whole. Even the poor or those who are not well known in a given community may buy on credit, a relatively recent and beneficial development.(58) The existence of credit reports gives consumers an incentive to make payments on time, which means that businesses can lower the losses they suffer from default.(59)

DATA TRAFFICKING IS NOW $74 BILLION A YEAR

USA TODAY, March 12, 1999, SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 14A TITLE: Tech companies to customers: Privacy is history Web // acs-EE2001

The data trafficking market now pushes $ 74 billion a year, according to some estimates. And the richer the profile a company can amass on a person, the more money it can fetch.