When your bank or credit card company potentially holds details of every- thing about you from your political affiliations to your sexuality, the `big brother' scenario of Orwell's 1984 becomes alarmingly close. Not only will consumers become more wary about what personal information they give out 26 (and what they allow companies do with it) but personal information about consumers will have a price, with consumers demanding discounts and reduc- tions on products and services in return for divulging more details about their lives and preferences.
The impact on marketers is that they need to build brands sympathetically to customers and set best practice in permission marketing, by only giving the potential customer information if they request it and by acting as the customer's guardian when releasing (or selling) data. Alternative Ways of Working Although many companies would deny a trend towards virtuality, the reality is that they're already heading in that direction. There is likely to be a dramatic increase in the amount of business communication conducted virtually, whether by intranet Web-conferencing or via videophone. Telecommuting, sometimes called teleworking or homeworking, is already common in the US. In Europe, there currently are 1.25 million telecoirinruters, a number that is expected to increase dramatically as the telecommunications infrastructure is improved.