In a recent release, approximately 70 percent of 10,000 consumers surveyed through FinSightsm, the RR Donnelley financial services consumer panel, "think companies have too much personal information." A slightly higher percentage, 76.4 percent, "feel that their privacy has been compromised if a company uses their personal information to sell them products." Yet, consumers are more willing to give a company personal information if they get something, like a personalized product or service offer, in return.

The Ipsos National Consumer Attitudes and Spending by Household (CASH) Index continued to hold steady in early August, continuing a 2-month stabilizing trend. However, consumers are more optimistic than pessimistic on the state of the economy and their personal finances six months from now. The recent release includes the response to questions regarding prospects for personal finances and the local economy six months from now.

A recent release from the Direct Marketing Association, citing their Quarterly Business Review (QBR) for the second quarter of 2003, says there are two very different experiences for direct and interactive marketers:

• those whose businesses continued to be impacted by a lack of recovery and the war in Iraq,
• and those who, despite everything, managed to post significant gains over last year.

As reported by eMarketer, the Zelos Group projects that the transmission of photos from mobile devices will rise in popularity over the coming years, generating $10 million in revenues in the US this year and a whopping $438 million in 2008. Zelos also projects that by 2008, one-third of mobile phone owners in the US will have camera phones.