So we started to talk about security long before we even had the notion of what we were going to do on the Internet. Security has been extending our services beyond the banking center itself, making security the most critical thing we can do. Even before we had collaborative efforts with other banks, we tried to come up with some kind of a standard, because at that time there was no standard for security protocols.

Two or three years ago, the banks put money into some little security company and tried to come up with a banking protocol for security. The whole thing was beyond what we needed for ourselves, but we needed to give customers the comfort level that their information would remain private.

It was a perception issue--clients just weren't going to use those tools unless they were confident that their information was private, that it was authenticated, and that nobody else could do things to it.

F. Lecoq: If we're talking security, we're talking privacy, but we should also talk about trust. For example, we believe that in the local communities trading together, there's an element of trust that has almost nothing to do with E-commerce, but it's part of what we're doing.

Phillipps: Why do you take your money to the bank? I'd submit it's not because of the vault, it's because of the insurance. That's a great trend. I think that's going to do a lot for the maturation [of E-business], an FDIC equivalent to insure against loss in the Internet space. That's going to take it up a significant step.

F. Lecoq: It's really a matter of perception, because the credit card can be hacked outside the Internet very quickly, more than on the Internet.

InformationWeek:What about privacy? The consumer has a lot of concerns in terms of privacy.

Bell: That was a critical notion we had to tackle before we could even offer the first outside tools to our customers. Even two or three years ago, prior to doing any of this other stuff, we had to make sure we had a way for people to feel that their information was going to be secure and private, but yet, at the same time, be easy for them to get.

InformationWeek: What about data mining tools, for example? If the average consumer knew how sophisticated data mining was, would they be afraid?

Phillipps: Very much so. And also the richness of acquisition capabilities on the Web, where you can scan a consumer's whole click stream, where did they go, how many nanoseconds did they spend looking at that, and then the ability to derive some meaningful, actionable information from it.

I don't see that issue going away. Too many of us have failed our promises to the consumer to safeguard their privacy. There are several examples where companies said "we'll never release your data to somebody else," and then it's "we just got acquired and they're sending you mail." Now, you're getting spam.

F. Lecoq: That's what I call good behavior. If you say that, you just don't do it.

Bell: We're not all altruistic about it, either. Now there's actually costs associated with it--if a person, for example, tells the bank, "I opt out of getting these things," and if you send it to them again, you're now actually subject to being fined. So some of it is because we want to be good neighbors, and the rest is because it's going to cost us money.

That's going to push a lot of us toward making sure we're more responsible with that data.