Digital Lubrication

All of the biggest names in computing: Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, AOL and IBM have announced this week their support for the newly defined online practice of "Digital Lubrication".

This complex protocol has been in the pipeline for many months and only recently have the standards surrounding this new phenomenon been made available. The technical version is called the Electronic-Commerce Modeling Language (ECML) which aims to "digitally lubricate" the process of extracting your personal information and money from your computer and pocket, into those of large multi-nationals.

But do not fear, credit card companies Visa International and MasterCard International have also said that they will support ECML ... so they can data mine your transactions, cross-market them with a bunch a high street stores and send to stuff that you never read anyway.

We are assured that, "for years, technology companies have been trying to gain widespread support for proprietary electronic wallet software, which retailers refused to embrace because of the need for special software or the reprogramming of a site. ECML will eliminate the need for retailers to require consumers to re-enter personal information for each purchase. Instead, personal information will be stored on the consumer's Web browser or on an Internet server" ... for anyone to have a quick peek at, if they fancy it.

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