You Know My ´Alter-Ego´--but You Don´t Know Me!

This paper explores the pitfalls of information disclosure in an e-commerce context. Many unwary and unaware e-customers fall into this trap. We explore current efforts to give the user control over disclosure of sensitive information. We propose a mechanism which will give customers this control over their own privacy by means of a third party portal which can be trusted by customers and stores alike. The portal gives the customers the chance to tailor the information they want to disclose and the stores will earn customer trust by behaving ethically. The portal´s architecture and implementation details are presented and future work is suggested.