Web Threats Keep Users Away
this story covers the results of a survey from webwatch, which indictates that people are cutting back on spending online as a result of fears about identity theft and phishing.
I think this kind of swing is one that a lot of companies (like banks) who save a lot of money as more of their customers transact over the net, will be very worried about. If their customers start returning to using other channels like phone banking or branch banking, then that's likely to have a real impact on the bottom line for the companies involved...
One outcome I think it likely is a return of the AOL style "walled garden" Internet where only specific, vetted, sites are available to the user, with the service provider providing some assurance over the content...
Ordinary users are not and don't want to be savvy enough in the ways that the Internet works to be able to reliably detect phishing scams and to keep spyware off their PC's. As a result, if the environment on the 'net keeps getting more hostile, it will be better for the ordinary users to take the hit and lose access to a lot of sites, in exchange for a greater level of safety...
