Companies in the past have had great difficulty in the collection, organization, and retrieval of information from consumers. Usually this data was organized manually, requiring services from different agencies to create a consumer profile. The process was complex, sluggish, and expensive for one to gather such material. However thanks to the Internet, and now powerful computers and targeting algorithms in association with large-scale databases, has simplified this process and enhanced its yield greatly in Ecommerce. The Internet offers numerous opportunities to collect this information about individuals, questioning the ethical values at hand and justifications on how this data is mined.
The most common and well-known method of tracking one’s online activities are cookies. Cookies in short, help identify consumers for future visits for businesses which enable them to provide a more personalized online experience. It allows websites to gather detailed information about a user’s preferences, interests, and surfing patterns (browser history) which helps create a more accurate user profile than methods of tracking such as web registrations or surveys. The reason cookies are more accurate is because users tend to provide false, inaccurate information in these forums. However these forums are still a major method of collecting one’s EC data, where personal information is shared voluntarily in exchange of some other benefits such as a download or access to a website’s content.
In turn, this aids in the creation of a transaction log which is a record of one’s activities at a site. It states where users are coming from, their frequency of visits, navigation through a website, and even purchasing information from the shopping cart. All t...
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...e speech, and legal/ethical issues cannot be ignored. Providing protection for this data requires careful reconsideration of the business community’s interests in promoting Ecommerce, the government’s interests in promoting economic growth and protecting their citizens, and of course the interests of users in protecting themselves from intrusive expansion by governments and businesses in their personal lives. Protecting user privacy in Ecommerce will require the utilization of all the tools available through legislation, public education, self-regulation, and the technology itself we all use. This is no doubt an ongoing debate about the ethical values, and laws at hand for privacy concerns. Privacy rights protection is one of the most controversial and expressive issues in Ecommerce, and will be not ignored until handled appropriately, respectfully, and responsibly.
Did you know that almost everything you do on the internet is being tracked and recorded in some way? In the Article, George Orwell… Meet Mark Zuckerberg, by Lori Andrews, Andrews talks about how behavioral advertising, which is the tracking of consumer’s online activities in order to bring custom-made advertisements, is a topic that is concealed to many people and can cause damage. Search engines like Google store the searches you have made and in 2006 there were search logs released which had personal information that people were judged by (Andrews 716-717). Data aggregation is the main way Facebook makes its money. Andrews believes that it’s an invasion of privacy and is not known well enough by the public. This article is aimed at young and new internet users that are ignorant of the possible dangers on the web. Lori Andrews is successful at informing novice users about the dangers of behavioral
According to the Federal Trade Commission, a data broker is a company that packages consumer information from numerous sources and sells this consumer information to other businesses or people (Katz, par 2). Throughout this paper, I will employ course materials, class debates, and lecture notes to analyze a data broker company operating under the name of Spokeo. First, I will also evaluate how and why data brokers, particularly Spokeo, package and sell consumer information. Then, I will examine various characteristics of Spokeo with regards to Daniel Kahneman’s Prospect Theory. Thirdly, I will consider and analyze aspects of Spokeo taking into account William Prosser’s four legal aspects of privacy. Finally, I will discuss what packaging and selling consumer information may mean for consumers’ attitudes and
Advertisement agencies use behavioral advertisement, or third party cookies, to track customers on and off their client’s website. This allows them to create specific banner ads that display content viewed and not purchased, in hopes of getting a larger customer return and purchase rate. This practice is increasing among e-commerce and is raising concerns with ethical and privacy advocators.
Automatic Information: We receive and store certain types of information whenever you interact with us. For example, like many Web sites, we use "cookies," and we obtain certain types of information when your Web browser accesses Amazon.com. Scroll to the bottom of this page to see examples of the information we receive. A number of companies offer utilities designed to help you visit Web sites anonymously. Although we will not be able to provide you with a personalized experience at Amazon.com if we cannot recognize you, we want you to be aware that these tools exist.
I found three different e-commerce companies that have recently encountered a consumer privacy data breach. Target one of the most well-known breaches affected almost 40 million people, Evernote Corp. an online note-taking service, and LivingSocial a company which offers gift certificates for customers to use in different cities around the globe. In this paper I will be discussing what happened and how each company handled the different situations that they encountered.
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 ...
“Human beings are not meant to lose their anonymity and privacy,” Sarah Chalke said. When using the web, web users’ information tends to be easily accessible to government officials or hackers. In Nicholas Carr’s “Tracking Is an Assault on Liberty,” Jim Harpers’ “Web Users Get As Much As They Give,” and Lori Andrews “Facebook is Using You” the topic of internet tracking stirred up many mixed views; however, some form of compromise can be reached on this issue, laws that require companies to inform the public on what personal information is being taken, creating advice on social media about how web users can be more cautious about what kind of information they give out online, enabling your privacy settings and programs, eliminating weblining, and also by attacking this problem by offering classes for the youth on the internet. Weblining tracks a web user’s information when using the internet, the information that is taken is then used to try to sell items to the user. Carr informs readers on how weblining works: “Already, advertisers are able to infer extremely personal details about people by monitoring their web-browsing habits.
Online data tracking good because it allows companies such as Google, Yahoo, and Twitter to give you customize Internet service for better experiences. Online tracking allows advertisers to precisely target their consumer’s needs based on their b...
6. Daniel Lin, Michael C. Loui, "Taking the Byte Out of Cookies: Privacy, Consent, and the Web" Computers and Society, June 1998.
The whole world is connected by technology. Over time, technology has advanced from payphones and typewriters to cellphones and computers. The progression from a gray-screened cellular device to an advanced smartphone allows easier accessibility. So the question is whether or not the Internet or online technology is affecting the way we read long texts. In my opinion, I agree with Nicholas Carr, who states that "our hyperactive online habits are damaging the mental faculties we need to process and understand lengthy textual information.”
When dealing with hardship you should not forget to follow your policies and be honest. Although many online businesses are accepting the importance of website, but the potential of ethical concerns still dawdles in this situation. Because of the tremendous growth of e-commerce, it has sparked ethical concerns about privacy, deception, intellectual property, and marketing to children. One such company deceived its customers about its policy and promise. On June 9, 2000 Toysmart was a Disney owned internet vender of educational toys and games filled for bankruptcy. Toysmart placed ads to pay its investors. The ad encompassed detailed information of more than 200,000 customers, each customer worth up to $500. The offer included customer’s addresses, billing information, family information and names.
The protection of consumer privacy in e-business. The digital era has arrived. Blue Book information editorial board and Social Science Literature Publishing House (2010) pointed out that “China's e-commerce transaction volume reached 3.85 trillion yuan in 2009”. Utilisation of e-business services was also high amongst Hong Kong people.
In this new era of the Internet, most people use the Internet to acquire information of one kind or other. But what these people are not aware of is that the Internet is collecting information about them. Every time we get onto the Internet there might be a compromise of privacy of our personal information. The information flows both ways. With every clock of the mouse on a hyperlink, or an addition to the mailing list, someone out there might be gathering information about us. This raises the seriousness of privacy of our information on the Internet.
Nevertheless, one of the most important constants among all of us, regardless of our differences, is that, above all, we are buyers. We use or consume on a regular basis food, clothing, shelter, transportation, education, equipment, vacations, necessities, luxuries, services, and even ideas. As consumers, we play an essential role in the health of the economy; local, national and international. The purchase decision we make affect the requirement for basic raw materials, for transportation, for production, for banking; they affect the employment of employees and the growth of resources, the successfulness of some industries and the failure of others. In order to be successful in any business and specifically in today’s dynamic and rapidly evolving marketplace, marketers need to know everything they can about consumers; what they are want, what they are think, how they are work, how they are spend their leisure time. They have to find out the personal and group influences that affect consumer decisions and how these decisions are made. In these days of ever-widening media choices, they need to not only identify their target audiences, but they have to know where and how to reach
Privacy is the condition where someone personal information can not be documented and be used by others (Parent, 1983). Privacy has been and continues to be a significant issue of concern for both current and prospective electronic commerce customers. The foll...