Executive Summary

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The issue of personal information privacy (PIP) and e-commerce (EC) continues to be debated within the community of Internet users. The concerns of privacy advocates conflict with the concerns of technology growth advocates. The challenges to PIP posed by various forms of EC technology are not the result of the technology itself. Rather it is the uses of the technology that pose the threat to the integrity of PIP. In particular, the surreptitious monitoring of user behavior without the user's consent and the possible misuse of the collected information are the biggest threats to the growth of EC.

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