Should on-line bevavior data be opt-in or opt-out

Poll

Consumer on-line buying and browsing patterns should be: [128 votes total]
Opt-out: companies should be free to mine them, unless consumers explicitly opt-out (47)	37%
Opt-in: consumers should explicitly agree to mining of their info (74)	58%
Either - I don't care (7)	5%

Will Dwinnell, May 22nd 2002
I took the question, as stated, to be about data mining against a company's own customers or visitors, which I believe should be opt-out. Sharing that information with anyone else should be opt-in.
Editor, May 20th 2002, Privacy and Mining on-line behavior
A privacy bill recently proposed by Senator Hollings (see KDnuggets News of May 7, 2002) would classify information into "sensitive" (e.g. medical data), that requires explicit user permission to mine, and non-sensitive that companies can mine unless user opts-out. Online buying patterns are classified as "non-sensitive", or opt-out.