Re: Price Discrimination on Internet

[Sabri Oncu <soncu@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Eric writes:

> In fact, the jury is out as to whether (first degree)
> price discrimination is really possible on the Internet.
> It would be easy for customers to foil attempts to target
> them for higher prices by eliminating information in cookies
> (or using cookies with false information within them)
> and/or by learning shopping behavior that a shopping
> site's algorithm believes indicates someone with a high
> elasticity of demand. And, of course, Amazon.com got slapped
> on its virtual hands when it started activities that would
> permit it (so it thought) to introduce price discrimination.

This is interesting. A while ago I had an exchange with Ravi here
about sofware engineers' lowliness, where I mentioned an internet
startup to which I was trying to sell my consulting. One thing I
learnt from that experience is that in the US transferring
information from the computer of an individual and storing it in
a central database is illegal because it is a violation of
privacy. However, individual information can be legally stored in
cookies since they reside on the individuals computer and hence
belongs to the individual. But when you visit a website that
dropped that cookie on your computer, the website has access to
the cookie and can process that information on your computer. Why
is this not also a violation of privacy according to the US law?

Sabri