KIARA MARSHALL SEMESTER PROJECT EIS 3302 Ethical Problems in E- Businesses

Introduction E-businesses are electronic business activities and technology that is meant to supplement or improve a company or establishment Examples of e-businesses are any business who use the internet to sell products and conduct transactions such as Amazon, TigerDirect, and EBay It is a beneficial concept but there are many people who take advantage of the anonymity of this vessel and conduct unethical behavior

E-business Growth

Theft Theft is a huge issue concerning e-business and the biggest item that is a target for online thieves is the customer’s personal information When making a purchase online, it is required that you submit your personal information including address and credit card and billing information at least once to complete the transaction A customer’s sensitive data can be visible for others to see; making them a target for skilled hackers to acquire if a business is not up to date on their security software.

Theft (cont’d) Phishing is another consequence of one’s information being visible on the internet. By gaining someone’s , a scam artist can send fraudulent s claiming to be an organization that requires you to send them your password and/or personal and account information due to an “urgent matter”. “the s look and sound official, and often contain graphics stolen from the company or organization from which the message claims to originate” which makes this attack hard to recognize. This explains why some of the employees at Central in module 9 fell for this scam which could’ve been detrimental

Theft (cont’d) The best way to protect yourself from falling prey to this cybercrime is to do proper research on a business before making a purchase and entrusting your personal data to them and do not blindly click on links or s you do not recognize or completely trust.

Poor Service Poor service is another ethical issue that occurs in e- businesses. Due to the anonymity of the internet, some businesses accept a customer’s payment and ship them damaged goods or products that were not agreed upon during the transaction Corrupt businesses get away with this offense because after an online order has been made, they shut down communication with the customer Most businesses even continue to scam other buyers by taking down the site they originally had and creating an entirely new one with new contact information and products.

Lack of Privacy The ethical issue of the lack of consumer privacy is similar to a double edged sword; specifically regarding big data Big data is a term used when businesses monitor patterns and online behavior of users without their knowledge and use the acquired knowledge to tailor their sites and advertisements to the user by only displaying content they think the user would have interest in.

Lack of Privacy (cont’d) Some would say this is just a form of marketing that is beneficial to both the business and consumer Those who do not support this concept would argue that it is still and invasion of privacy whether it has benign intentions behind it or not.

Amazon

Amazon is a largely popular e-business that dominates other businesses as it makes itself transparent to its users, gaining the trust of its customers The company leads by example with its easily understandable privacy statements and efforts to protect users’ information online by having state of the art software and suggestions for users to perform safe practices such as deleting cookies and updating their customer profiles

conclusions electronic business is a great addition to the traditional way of conducting trade and has opened many doors of opportunities in the world today But business online makes a customer is much more likely to be susceptible to identity theft and poor service as well as invasions of privacy A way to protect oneself is to not be naïve when shopping online and do proper research on a company before sharing sensitive information with them and entrusting payment for a product

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