Privacy concerns growing.

Concerns about privacy are approaching the kind of tipping point that makes it worthwhile for everyone who serves consumers to consider. News about privacy breaches at ChoicePoint and Bank of America got through to many consumers who weren't taking identity theft too seriously before.

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Now, more consumers are cutting up receipts than cutting chickens or disinfecting cutting boards.

Now, you can take it as a given that many of your customers are concerned enough about this to be doing more about it than they were a year ago.

Shoppers are shredding, cutting, tearing, and looking over their shoulder. (There may even be a far-fetched relationship here to the growing desire for easy open, no-scissor-needed, packaging--all their cutting energy is being used up to protect them from identity theft.)

The anti-card group CASPIAN is suggesting that assuring privacy could be a marketing tool for retailers competing against Wal-Mart. The idea is worth considering.