Counter Argument In its motion to dismiss the case, there are a few points that Amazon could have disputed, including its previous adjustments to the in-app charging system and parental responsibilities of monitoring and protecting children’s online activity.
Amazon’s Previous Precautionary Measures
When in-app purchases were first introduced to the Amazon Appstore, there were no password requirements on in-app charges, including children’s games and other apps (Federal Trade Commission, 2014). Thus, customers began to complain about unknown billed charges on their accounts from in-app purchases. In response to its customers’ reactions to the unauthorized charges, Amazon has modified its in-app purchasing system several times to require a password entry to authorize in-app charges. While the FTC and Amazon customers are still not content with the updates, Amazon argues that the company is already taking plenty of
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But, in a case like Amazon, the question of whose right is actually being violated may be raised. The children are claimed to have physically committed the act of mistakably making in-app purchases, but the charges are made under the parents’ account. Therefore, the data collected is technically the parents’ personal information so their privacy is also infringed. While the goal of COPPA is to increase parental involvement in children’s online activities, there are limited resources in order to do so. Hiller et al. (2008) argues “if COPPA is to protect children online by means of parental involvement, then new tools are needed to assist them, technical methods that will empower parents to assert control over Web site practices, and even their own, technically sophisticated children” (p. 444). Parents have authority over their children as dependents, but parental controls on electronic devices can only do so much with today’s children being increasingly knowledgeable in advancing
The expansion of the Internet infrastructure across the world, has brought an increased audience. Which has provided expanded markets for businesses and exploited new opportunities. There are virtually countless social sites and media used by individuals to access and share experiences , content, insights, and perspectives. Parents today tend to believe they should spy on their kids online activity. I argue parents should respect the privacy of a child's social life and his/her internet activity.
The major categories or modes of shipment for Amazon.com in the U.S. are drop-ship, split, partnered, and postal-injection.
Amazon.com operates in the Online Retail Industry. The sector is one of the fastest growing globally and is outperforming the ordinary retail marketplace. It was created after 1995 and it was only the Internet that made it possible for such an industry not only to be established but to become one of the most flourishing sectors in the business environment. What is interesting is that Amazon.com, together with eBay is the pioneer in the field. Both companies were launched in 1995 and are still extremely successful. The creation of e-mail in 1996 had a huge impact on the development of online retail by introducing a fast and easy way to communicate with customers. For this two-year period Internet usage doubled annually, thus, allowing for the expansion of the industry. Google is launched a year later, in 1998, only to become the most used search engine in the world and an essential partner for the online retailers by helping them tailor their websites to customer’s personal preferences and by advertising. After that, more and more people see the opportunity in the growing industry and enter it. By 2001 there are more than 513 million Internet users globally, which calls for action in terms of creating regulations and laws to protect the users and personal property. In 2003, Apple launches iTunes, and provides a platform for low-cost digital downloads. Another major change is the appearance of social media from 2004, which is one of the biggest influencer on the state of the industry. With the launch of iPhone in 2007, this trend strengthens as people get to enjoy the Internet anywhere they want to. From then on, technological advancements have made it extremely easy and fun to shop online, making it ...
Adams, Mike. "Big brother u.s. government subpoenaed amazon.com to obtain book purchasing records of customers." Web.
Treanor, T.. (2010). Amazon: Love Them? Hate Them? Let's Follow the Money. Publishing Research Quarterly, 26(2), 119-128. Retrieved February 24, 2012, from ABI/INFORM Trade & Industry. (Document ID: 2377177581).
Amazon’s macro-environment is made up of six external factors: political, economic, environmental, technological, social, and legal conditions. These factors are important because they shape how the company operates and you must know each piece to be able to compete within the retail and eCommerce industry. An evolving political factor are the efforts the government has made toward punishing offenders of cyber-crime. This kind of thief wasn’t walking into your store, but hacking into your computer. This type of crime wasn’t possible before the internet. The government has started to take these crimes more serious as technology evolves. Technology is a factor that Amazon.com must invest heavily in. They are reliant on having top of the line technology to survive against cyber-crime and to stay relevant in the tech world. ECommerce is everywhere now and competition is very high. This brings in legal conditions; Amazon must know what laws exist in which countries because they are a
...re of this fact. Yet, we still like to think of what we do on the internet as our own business, and we do not like governments searching through our Gmail accounts or recording our video chats. It somehow does not seem wrong when Amazon does it – after all, we are the ones who willingly create an account knowing that Amazon will have an insight in what we buy, what we want to buy and what we need, even when we ourselves are not aware that we need it.
From the consumer side, Amazon provides services like Amazon Prime, which delivers free two-day shipping on retail purchases, on-demand video streaming and a free access to the Kindle library, everything for an annual
COPPA purpose is to protect the privacy of children on the internet. The websites on the internet can only collect certain information from children and need to have parents’ consent. The main requirement for COPPA is to get consent from the parents to collect information and the second is the creation and posting of the privacy policy. A website has to have consent from the parents to be able to use any information collected from a child. According to Grama (2011), web site operators who get information from children must get consent from the parents before collecting, using or disclosing information, (p.124). Getting the consent can be challenging in that the web site operator needs to make sure it is the parent, not someone claiming to be the parent of the child. The web site would have to use technology which can help prove it is the child parent and not the child or someone else claiming to be the parent. The web site also has to c...
Amazon has been able to maintain sustainable competitive advantage based on three operational strategies. These are low cost-leadership, customer differentiation and focus strategies. Low cost-leadership is pursued by Amazon by differentiating itself primarily on the basis of price. By offering low prices to customers Amazon ensures its future success. Partially modifying the costs of lowering prices over time through achieving higher sales volumes, negotiating better terms with suppliers, and achieving better operating efficiencies. Amazon makes sure that it offers the same quality products as other companies at a considerably cheaper price. Another strategy that Amazon has is its fast delivery service and there are many delivery services that one can choose from. With Amazon Prime, there are certain, but many products that have free two-day shipping. Also, with Amazon Prime, there are many offers specifically for people that have Amazon Prime. For example,
Amazon.com creates value for its customers by offering customers broad array of products to select from through their website and ensuring timely delivery of products to exhibit high level of commitment towards their business and customers
PACE represented Amazon. For our business profile project, we focused on Amazon. Amazon.com Inc. was founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994. Amazon was first started in Bezos' garage and has turned into a billion dollar operation over the course of 22 years (Smith). Amazon is currently headquartered in Seattle, Washington and has branch locations all over the world.
Amazon has recorded a magnificent success in its business throughout the years that it has been in operation. It has attracted almost all people to use it when necessary. Amazon has built its success in business methodically and slowly. Amazon has made much success because of its ability to read market trends and diversify its operations. It started as an online book selling company. However, it changed its operations and started selling other products. Currently, many large retail shops use Amazon to host and power their websites, for instance, sears and virgin megastores. Amazon now attracts over fifty million visitors in a period of one month. Amazon has tried to make their services fit each individual user. It has based its services on the end user. It has shipping discounts, customer product reviews and a credit card with bonuses. It also has prime membership, product forums and 1-click ordering system among other services. The company has tried to make a remarkable experience for customers and visitors (Thomas, 2006).
Eule, A. (2013). It’s time for Amazon to open its black box. Barron’s, 93(42), 37.
Amazon’s coopetition-based business model is based upon collaboration and with collaboration there is a certain level of inherent negotiation required. “A collaborative strategy is one in which both parties consider the relationship and the outcome to be equally important” (Saunders et al., 2013, p. 22). As described earlier, this collaborative approach has only strengthened Amazon. They believe they can win by letting their competitors win also. Not only this, Amazon is also adding value to the organization with this logic. “As customer value is increased when there are a variety of competing offerings in a similar domain (Wang & Xie,