"A recent Vanderbilt University analysis of consumer responses . . . reported that more than 72 percent of Web users would relinquish their data if they were assured of 'a cooperative relationship built on trust'—specifically, if the sites would provide statements about how the data were going to be used.

In Mr. Godin's lexicon, that cooperation is the essence of permission marketing, which has three basic components: it is anticipated, it is personal and it is relevant."
—Denise Caruso, "Digital Commerce," The New York Times, May 10, 1999