[clug] The 1st Internet Tax is here.

[jm]

Robert Edwards wrote:
>
> I'd like to see a whole nother online payment paradigm made available.
>
> What I would like to be able to do is to rock up to a local eg.
> convenience store and buy a token (think of a phonecard or similar)
> with cash or whatever which I can then use to purchase stuff off of
> the Internet, without giving up my (personal, identity-revealing)
> credit card details which can be used to track my eg. purchasing
> patterns etc.
>
I was in one of the Co-op Bookshops the other day and they had prepaid 
visa cards which match this discription very closely. I only saw it only 
in passing so am not sure of the specifics.

Personally I think that the transaction (for one off purchases at least) 
should be between the "card" and the bank with the merchant being paid 
by the bank in your name. The key here is that the smarts are in the 
card not in the terminal which merely provides a data connection.

Jeff.