The Economist reports on October 16th, 2003 on “They’re watching you: The internet is eroding privacy. It also allows unprecedented price discrimination. Are the two related?” (Subscription needed).

The article mentions a recent study “Privacy, Economics and Price Discrimination on the Internet” to support the idea that whereas the Internet so far in many studies has been promoted as a cure for lack of competion (more transparency e.g. at b2b exchanges would drive down prices) the Internet might in fact in many instances mean that vendors will be able to discriminate prices to degree until now unheard of. The ability of computers and webapplications to collect detailed information about buyers enables sellers to costumize not just products and services but also prices in accordance with the unique identy of the buyer.

This is to me just another example of the Internet really being a much more double-edged sword than was initially asserted by the “head-in-the-sky” gurus of the dotcom age.