Bean or a satin bra from Victoria’s Secret, a call detail record is generated at the local phone company showing, among other things, the time of your call, the number you dialed, and the long-distance company to which you have been connected. At the long-distance company, similar records are generated recording the duration of your call and the exact routing it takes through the switching system. This data will be combined with other records that store your billing plan, name, and address in order to generate a bill.
At the catalog company, your call is logged again along with information about the particu lar catalog from which you ordered and any special promotions you are responding to. When the customer service representative that answered your call asks for your credit card number and expiration date, the information is immediately relayed to a credit card verification system to approve the trans action; this too creates a record. All too soon, the transaction reaches the bank that issued your credit card, where it appears on your next monthly statement. When your order, with its item number, size, and color, goes into the cata- loger ’s order entry system, it spawns still more records in the billing system and the inventory control system. Within hours, your order is also generating transaction records in a computer system at UPS or FedEx where it is scanned about a dozen times between the warehouse and your home, allowing you to check the shipper ’s Web site to track its progress.