Did you know that many online merchants employ third parties to check the credibility of the buyer. This is frightening, as these companies (like Cybersource) aggregate personal information of online shoppers.

At the same time, the article does a fine job of showing why something like this is necessary. As the online shop has no way of checking the credibility of the buyer (e.g., the customer doesn’t provide a signature), analysis of consumer behavior seems like a fair alternative to manage the risk.

The article doesn’t offer solutions, but points out that this kind of data collection is a two sided sword. I feel that we can’t avoid it, but I feel that we should make sure that organizations like Cybersources are regulated and monitored by independend committees.