As more and more potential customers adopt various technologies, businesses reach a tipping point where they're comfortable losing the patronage of anyone who hasn't adopted the technology.

Hence the number of companies being unable to support customers who don't have an email address, web access, or a smartphone. J Crew is one example, and we've also seen this with digital coupons. I encounter this sort of problem several times a month with some company or another. The transition to cashless businesses is also in progress, which will disenfranchise even more customers.

Last year I went to a restaurant and there was a wait list for a table. They refused to put my name on the wait list unless I gave them my mobile number. We ate elsewhere.

We're liable to wind up in a world where 95% of the population has no problems doing day-to-day business, but the 5% who are either privacy-conscious or who don't have financial resources will find life outrageously difficult.