This more or less reflects what I have been seeing (on a low volume private mail server) but the dropoff for me started around late October with connections staying at relatively normal levels but the amount of spam coming in falling to almost zero.

Curiosity (i.e. tcpdump) turned up the reason - what looked like a spammer 'template typo' that was causing emails to fail relatively silently with a protocol error, so they never got far enough to be counted as anything. It looks like they have fixed it now and are trying to make up for lost time.

I don't know which botnet was responsible so I couldn't say how widespread this was but I don't think it's entirely coincidental.

> Most people in the UK are happy to be profiled in exchange for financial benefits.

I'm not sure this is quite accurate - what proportion of people with those store cards have even the faintest clue what the profiling involves, or even that it is happening?

They will have signed up for the card on the basis of getting vouchers in return for shopping at ther same place. Even if the application form said anything specific about profiling - doubtful, as it would be in terms of 'we may use information' - it would be in the small print, and not many people bother to read that.

In Britain, we have this on the way. Our clever politicians passed the Identity Cards Act 2006 which specifies all kind of 'related information' and 'designated documents' which are either indexed from your Identity Record, or require your record to be created, or both.

There will also be an audit trail (for our benefit of course) that will allow us to check whether anyone has been checking our ID without authorisation from us. Which means of course that the usage will be recorded. Access to 'public services' is to be determined on the basis of whether or not you have a verified ID - for the moment that doesn't have to be the Official ID card.

So a minor alteration to the query mentioned above:

> select * from card_audit_log where id_number = '54392303122'

will pull up a nice 'audit trail' listing all cases where you had to have your ID checked, which of course would include age checks for buying e.g. alcohol, and access to public services, e.g. the local library. Also any financial transactions requiring your ID, application forms where you need to prove residence in a particular area, the list goes on.

As from some time in 2008, being added to the database ceases to be optional, and as from 2010 if you apply for a passport you will be issued with (and have to pay extra for) an ID card whether you want one or not.

I'm one of many who are renewing our passports early - before any of this gets under way - to ensure that we have more time to throw out this system before we get added - not least because registering will require a visit to a 'processing centre' (I kid you not).