E-Commerce and Csr Issues free essay sample

These challenges revolve around four main issues: security, privacy, identity and transaction non-refutability. There is no doubt that a new ethical dilemma has arisen and these authors propose two universal principles that must be upheld by internet commerce. The first ethical challenge of internet commerce is security, commonly referred to as â€Å"hacking†, ‘cracking†, or â€Å"page jacking†. Internet security breaches involve trespassing or breaking into computer networks, websites, and mailboxes. Hackers will steal information from confidential files, steal services or damage a system by swamping a PC, a server or a network. The second ethical challenge relates to privacy, which involves protecting the collection, storage, processing, disseminating and destruction of personal information. They continue that no one is anonymous on-line and what is nirvana for direct marketers is a nightmare for any consumer who wants to protect his or her privacy. On-line advertising can be targeted with great precision today, thanks to â€Å"cookies†, a mall text files that companies install on the hard drives of people who visit their sites in order to tract their profiles and browsing habits. We will write a custom essay sample on E-Commerce and Csr Issues or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Protecting on-line consumers in any web transaction is a great challenge. Despite the fact of privacy protection promise by various organization selling products on-line and the public sector initiative, privacy can never be absolute in any sense of it after all. The third ethical challenge is protecting identity of a person’s â€Å"virtual† identity, which makes identity theft or impersonation a serious problem. While consumers shop online, there is a probability that some else will steal another person’s credit card information and his or her identity. Another final leg of the challenges is non-refutability, this relates to verifying ransaction or ‘what really happened’ on-line. According to the authors, in 1999, there was a published story in Bloomberg financial news website announcing the acquisition of a major telecommunication manufacturer, and the news triggered a buying spree, but it was finally discovered that the story was not true. Some hackers copied Bloomberg’s masthead and published the rumor on-line. Verifying the digital signature, identity and authenticity is very critical before any information is assimilated. The two principles that should serve as guidelines are 1. Principle of on-line/off-line consistency when it comes to evaluating behavior. The basic ethical and legal standards that govern human conduct in the physical world must apply equally in cyberspace. 2. The second principle is technological neutrality. Nothing that the networked devices do by themselves has any ethical significance independently of the actions of a human agent and the intention inherent in those actions. Drawing from the authors, the main ethical value of e-commerce lies on the fact that increased market efficiency will ultimately work to the advantage and greater welfare of the on-line users. McGraw (1999) states that the four principles for any company engaging in e-commerce is 1. The principle of notice: tell customers what information an organization is collecting-and what is to be done with it. 2. Choice: adopt a policy with a procedure by which customers can choose not to have their information shared outside an organization. 3. Security: give customers confidence that their information is safe from tampering, theft and misappropriation and misuse. 4. Review and correction: give customers a way to see what information has been collected from them-and a means to correct any errors in that data. These four basics make a solid privacy policy-one that is understandable, defensible and acceptable to most consumers. References Alejo, S. , Joan, F. R. (2005). Ethical challenges of e-commerce. Journal of Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility. IESE Publication. McGraw, H. (1999). Managing the privacy revolution; E-commerce is a global issues, v (65)8, 240-243. City News Publishing Company.