Ethics in E-Commerce

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Ethics in E-Commerce

• Created By Chrystle, Tim, and Sasa

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Ethics in Web Business Policies

• Some businesses send spamming messages to
  everybodys inboxes to see who it can get to
  purchase their product or service.
• The web is controlled by a community of web
  surfers.
• There are limited amounts of laws online so
  enforcement is done by a community of people that
  use the internet.

3
Ethics in Web Business Policies Continued

• The government has some programs to monitor how
  online businesses are doing e-commerce,
• a quote on this topic that is interesting is The
  programs are as effective as an umbrella in a cat
  5 hurricane.
• harder to gain trust on line because you dont
  know the people and they dont know you.

4
Ethics in Web Business Policies Continued

• ethics is important if you want people to trust
  you and to do business with you.
• steps you can use to gain customers trust. These
  are
• Post Your Business Policies
• Honor Your Policies
• Protect Your Buyers Privacy and Security
• Data Mining - They discuss how businesses get
  customers personal information to better
  understand the customers needs and so forth.
  They go on to discuss that this is legal, but is
  it ethical..

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Ethics in Web Business Policies Continued

• Examples
• eToys website where many people where angry about
  what the company did and eventually hurt the
  company so much that they dropped the lawsuit.
• To read more on this go to http//digitalenterpris
  e.org/ethics/ethics.html

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Unethical policies used by some online business

• Adware - A form of spyware that collects
  information about the user in order to display
  advertisements in the Web browser based on the
  information it collects from the user's browsing
  patterns.
• Typosquatting - Purchasing a domain name that is
  a variation on a popular domain name with the
  expectation that the site will get traffic off of
  the original sight because of a user's
  misspelling of the name. For example, registering
  the domain names webapedia.com or yahooo.com in
  the hopes that someone making a typo will get to
  that site unexpectedly.

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Unethical policies used by some online business
Continued

• e-mail spoofing - Forging an e-mail header to
  make it appear as if it came from somewhere or
  someone other than the actual source. The main
  protocol that is used when sending e-mail -- SMTP
  -- does not include a way to authenticate. There
  is an SMTP service extension (RFC 2554) that
  allows an SMTP client to negotiate a security
  level with a mail server. But if this precaution
  is not taken anyone with the know-how can connect
  to the server and use it to send spoofed messages
  by altering the header information.

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Unethical policies used by some online business
Continued

• Spam Email that is sent to thousands of random
  email addresses for a purpose. Some business
  will send their ads to peoples emails to gain
  new customers and increase sales.
• Bait and Switch When a company has a ad that
  most of the time sounds to good to be true, to
  get people on their site and then once they are
  on the site the customer finds out what the ad
  said isnt entirely true or misleading. Example
  Ad claims 10 laptop (while supplies last) there
  was one a while ago that was 10 years old, but
  that ad wasnt lying, but it was misleading and
  it got the customer onto their site.

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Privacy Rights and Obligations

• Electronic Communications Privacy  Act of 1986
  is the main law governing privacy on the internet
  today.
• Opt-out approach the company collecting the
  information assumes that the customer does not
  object to the company's use of the information.
• Opt-in  approach -  the company collecting
  information does not use information for any
  other purpose  unless the customer gives
  permission.
• Direct Marketing Association DMA a trade 
  association of business that advertise  their
  product and services directly to customers.

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Communicating With Children

• Benefits of the internet for children
• educational tool
• meeting others with similar interests
• Entertainment

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Communicating With Children

• Governmental Laws
• 1998 Childrens Online Protection Act (COPA)
  protect children from material harmful to
  children
• ruled unconstitutional because it restricted
  access to a lot of material that was unnecessary
  which violated the First Amendment.

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Communicating With Children

• Governmental Laws Continued
• 1998 Childrens Online Privacy Protection Act
  (COPPA) restrictions of data collection from
  children from electronic commerce sites aimed
  toward children.
• does not regulate content
• 2001 Childrens Internet Protection Act (CIPA)
• requires schools that receive federal funds to
  install filtering software

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Communicating With Children

• Company Procedures
• ask birth date to ensure the person is of age and
  if not does not allow them to gain access to the
  site.
• ex alcohol promoting websites
• provide choices for registration select age range
  and may ask for parents permission.
• ex Disney website

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Communicating With Children

• Marketing to Children
• Companies depend on child for advertising for
  their nag factor
• they beg their parents for things
• they use cartoons and characters that children
  can relate to including colors
• 4 million children a year use the internet
  estimated

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Communicating With Children

• Marketing to Children Continued
• some sites ask children to fill out surveys
  asking about preferences, buying behaviors, other
  members of their family and personal information.
• they may offer free items for intisement as well
• children may feel inferior to classmates if they
  do not have the new items being marketed to them
• advertisers hire psychologists to help their
  marketing campaigns aim better at children more
  effectively

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Communicating With Children

• How Parent can Protect Their Children
• monitor and limit their childrens access to the
  internet
• keep themselves informed on internet safety
• software that can protect children

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Communicating With Children

• How Parent can Protect Their Children Continued
• teach their children the dangers of the internet
  and how someone may target them
• teach children what to do if they think they are
  being targeted
• prime example chat rooms and who is appropriate
  to talk to, what to disclose

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Resources

• Ethics and the Computer Children's Development
  of Moral Reasoning about Computer and Internet
  Use
• http//baywood.metapress.com/app/home/contribution
  .asp?referrerparentbacktoissue,1,6journal,47,1
  44linkingpublicationresults,1300321,1
• Cyber Ethics
• How to keep your children safe online
• http//devel2.emporionplaza.com.cy/cyberethics/faq
  .php
• Communication to Children
• http//www.prfirms.org/resources/monitoring/2007/0
  220-20Feb-4.asp
• Marketing to Children
• http//www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/sbeder/children.htm
  l
• Parent's Guide to Children's Online Safety
• http//www.usdoj.gov/criminal/ceos/onlinesafety.ht
  ml
• Advertising to children Is it ethical?
• http//www.apa.org/monitor/sep00/advertising.html

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Resources Continued

• Ethics, Managing the Digital Enterprise, North
  Carolina State University  
• http//digitalenterprise.org/ethics/ethics.html  
• e-Ethics in e-Commerce, W3 Edge
• http//www.w3-edge.com/weblog/e-ethics-in-e-commer
  ce/
• Computer World
• http//computerworld.com/action/article.do?command
  viewArticleBasictaxonomyNamestandards_and_legal
  _issuesarticleId304308taxonomyId146intsrckc_
  feat
• E-commerce Times
• ttp//www.ecommercetimes.com/rsstory/52616.html

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Resources Continued

• Employee Monitoring Is There Privacy in the
  Workplace?
• ttp//www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs7-work.htm
• Privacy and the Internet Traveling in Cyberspace
  Safely
• http//www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs18-cyb.htm
• Childrens Safety on the Internet A Resource
  Guide for Parents
• http//www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs21-children.htm
• Online Shopping Tips E-Commerce and You
• http//www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs23-shopping.htm
• Online Job Search Web Sites Tips to Safeguard
  Your Privacy
• http//www.privacyrights.org/fs/FS25-JobSeekerPriv
  .htm