Norton UniversityBusiness Concepts and Social Issues 1 PART TWO Business Concepts and Social Issues

Norton UniversityBusiness Concepts and Social Issues 2 Chapter 5: Ethical, Social, and Political Issues in E-commerce

Norton UniversityBusiness Concepts and Social Issues 3 Learning Objectives - Understand why e-commerce raise ethical, social and political issues. - Recognize the main ethical, social, and political issues raised by e-commerce. -Understand basic concepts related to privacy. - Identify the practices of e-commerce companies that threaten privacy.

Norton UniversityBusiness Concepts and Social Issues 4 Many business firms and individuals are benefiting from the commercial development of the internet, but this development also has costs for individuals, organizations, and societies. These costs and benefits must be carefully considered by those seeking to make ethical and socially responsible decisions in this new environment, particularly where there are as yet no clear-cut legal or cultural guidelines.

Norton UniversityBusiness Concepts and Social Issues 5 The major issues raised by e-commerce can be loosely categorized into four major dimensions: Information rights: What rights do individuals have to control their own personal information when internet technologies make information collection so pervasive and efficient ? Property rights: How can traditional intellectual property rights be enforced when perfect copies of protected works can be made and easily distributed worldwide via the internet ?

Norton UniversityBusiness Concepts and Social Issues 6 The major issues raised by e-commerce can be loosely categorized into four major dimensions: Governance: Should the internet and e-commerce be subject to public laws? If so, what law-making bodies have jurisdiction-state, and/ or international? Public safety and welfare: What efforts should be undertaken to ensure equitable access to the Internet and e-commerce channels? Do certain online content and activities pose a threat to public safety and welfare?

Norton UniversityBusiness Concepts and Social Issues 7 Understand basic concepts related to privacy To understand the issues concerning online privacy, you must first understand some basic concepts: - Privacy - Information privacy - Due process

Norton UniversityBusiness Concepts and Social Issues 8 Understand basic concepts related to privacy Privacy: Is the moral rights of individuals to be left alone, free from surveillance or interference from others. Information privacy: Included both the claim that certain information should not be collected at all by governments or business firms, and the claim of individuals to control the use of information about themselves. Due process: As embodied by the Fair Information Practices doctrine, informed consent, and opt-in/opt-out policies also play an important role in privacy.

Norton UniversityBusiness Concepts and Social Issues 9 Identify the practices of e-commerce companies that threaten privacy Almost all e-commerce companies collect some personally identifiable information in addition to anonymous information and use cookies to track click stream behavior of visitors.

Norton UniversityBusiness Concepts and Social Issues 10 Advertising networks and search engines also track the behavior of consumers across thousands of popular sites, not just at one site via cookies, spyware, search engine behavioral targeting, and other techniques. Identify the practices of e-commerce companies that threaten privacy