ETHICS IN E-COMMERCE AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

Ethics in Web Business Policies

Some businesses send spamming messages to people’s 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.

Ethics in Web Business Policies ContinuedThe 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 don’t know the people and they don’t know you.

Ethics in Web Business Policies ContinuedEthics 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 Buyer’s Privacy and

SecurityData Mining - They discuss how

businesses get customers personal information to better understand the customer’s needs and so forth. They go on to discuss that this is legal, but is it ethical..

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 people’s emails to gain new customers and increase sales.

Typo squatting - 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.

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 isn’t 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 wasn’t lying, but it was misleading and it got the customer onto their site.

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.

Communicating With Children Benefits of the internet for childrenEducational toolMeeting others with similar interestsEntertainment

Communicating With Children Governmental Laws Continued 1998 Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act

(COPPA) – restrictions of data collection from children from electronic commerce sites aimed toward children.does not regulate content

2001 Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) – requires schools that receive federal funds to install

filtering software

Communicating With Children Marketing to Children ContinuedSome 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

Communicating With Children How Parent can Protect Their

Childrenmonitor and limit their

children’s access to the internetkeep themselves informed on

internet safetysoftware that can protect

children 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 targetedprime example = chat rooms and

who is appropriate to talk to, what to disclose

Legal and Privacy Issues

Legal Issues: Privacy on the InternetRight to Privacy

Individual privacy vs. meeting consumer needsFinancial Services Modernization Act of 1999

establishes a set of regulations concerning the mgmt of consumer info

Network Advertising Initiative (NAI)July 1999NAI represents 90% of Web advertisersEstablished to determine the proper protocols

for managing a Web user’s personal info on the Internet

Deitel, et al., 2001

Legal Issues: Privacy on the InternetCookies

“…bits of info collected and stored by a Web browser when a person navigates the Web.”

Online Profiling“…aggregating data about customers by

tracking their clickstream.”

Allen, et al., 2001

MarketingInternet marketing research

Internet allows for a relaxed and anonymous setting to hold focus-group discussions and distribute questionnaires

Can learn about the demographics of Internet and WWW users in order to target marketing campaigns more effectively

Can segment market into groups that have similar characteristics and interests

MarketingE-mail Marketing

Inexpensive and effective way to target potential customers

Opt-in email – sent only to people who have expressed their consent to receiving commercial messages before the first message was sent to them

PromotionsCan attract visitors to sites and influence purchasingCan be used to increase brand loyalty through reward

programsFrequent-flyer miles, point-based rewards, discounts,

sweepstakes, free trials, free shipping and coupons

MarketingE-business Advertising

Traditional channels such as TV, movies, newspapers and magazines

Online advertisingBanner advertisingWebcasting – using streaming

media to broadcast an event over the Web

Public relationsChat sessions, bulletin board

on Web site, etc.

CopyrightsEstablished in the U.S. Constitution

Article I, section 8, clause 8Grants creators of original works the right to

DistributeDisplay PerformReproduce work Prepare derivative works based upon the workAuthor may grant exclusive right to others

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Copyrights (continued)Types of work that can be copyrighted

ArchitectureArtAudiovisual worksChoreographyDramaGraphicsLiterature Motion pictures

Copyrights (continued)Types of work that can be copyrighted

MusicPantomimesPicturesSculpturesSound recordingsOther intellectual works

As described in Title 17 of U.S. Code

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Copyrights (continued)Work must fall within one of the preceding

categoriesMust be original

Evaluating originality can cause problemsFair use doctrine

Factors to consider when evaluating the use of copyrighted material

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PatentsGrant of property rights to inventorsIssued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark

Office (USPTO)Permits an owner to exclude the public from

making, using, or selling the protected invention

Allows legal action against violatorsPrevents independent creationExtends only to the United States and its

territories and possessions23

PlagiarismTheft and passing off of someone’s ideas or

words as one’s ownMany students

Do not understand what constitutes plagiarism Believe that all electronic content is in the

public domainPlagiarism detection systems

Check submitted material against databases of electronic content

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Plagiarism (continued)Steps to combat student plagiarism

Help students understand what constitutes plagiarism

Show students how to document Web pagesSchedule major writing assignments in

portionsTell students that you know about Internet

paper millsEducate students about plagiarism detection

services

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CybersquattingTrademark is anything that enables a

consumer to differentiate one company’s products from another’sMay be

Logo Package design Phrase Sound Word

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Cybersquatting (continued)Trademark law

Trademark’s owner has the right to prevent others from using the same mark Or confusingly similar mark

CybersquattersRegistered domain names for famous

trademarks or company names Hope the trademark’s owner would buy the

domain name For a large sum of money

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Thank youSagar Bavishi (7)Prashant Hegde (36)Devesh Jha (40)Yashodeep KulkarniMoinak Banerjee