[1317] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: Commercial services on the Internet?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (John S. Quarterman)
Sun Sep 8 00:22:06 1991
Date: Sat, 07 Sep 91 14:41:07 CDT
From: John S. Quarterman <jsq@tic.com>
To: com-priv@uu.psi.com
To: francis%zaphod@gargoyle.uchicago.edu
Cc: smart@mel.dit.csiro.au, com-priv@uu.psi.com, smart@mel.dit.csiro.au,
In-Reply-To: Your message of Fri, 6 Sep 91 21:34:43 CDT
>I suppose there are security issues here--do you *want* to transmit
>your credit card # and expiration date over the Internet--but a
>service accepting credit cards could encrypt. (Wouldn't have to be by
>email.)
Could call an 800 number, supply the card number and pre-approve
a certain amount, establishing a debit account (I know of at least
one distributed system that does this). Or do what CompuServe and
DASnet do: accept a credit card number by snail with a signature,
and bill directly to the card number each month.
Better would be a bank online that could distribute pre-authorized
funds over the network using encryption, probably with David Chaum's
methods. Or if not a bank, perhaps a credit card company....
John S. Quarterman
jsq@tic.com
+1-512-320-9031
fax +1-512-320-5821
Matrix Information and Directory Services, Inc.
mids@tic.com
701 Brazos Suite 500
Austin, TX 78701
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