then the government is most likely to simply stifle further progress. Retailers alone have little interest in gathering less data (data for them is money); intervening now might therefore lock in an inferior technology.
Conceivably state governments could help push technologies of authentication that don't invade privacy. They could create incentives, for example, for systems that collect taxes without necessarily collecting personal data. But I wouldn't bet your privacy on it. It is better to go as Congress is going - slowly and carefully. A tax-enabled cyberspace just now would be the death knell for privacy for a long time to come.
Lawrence Lessig is a professor of law at Stanford Law School.
