E-Commerce and Csr Issues
E-commerce and CSR issues
In the words of Alejo and Joan (2005), regarding E-commerce and its Corporate social responsibility issues, “Reality is virtual, virtual reality-the reality that exist in the form of bits and bytes activated by electromagnetic energy and made powerful by IT and the internet-has changed the way we relate to one another. It has also revolutionized economics and business”. The authors state that while e-commerce, the sale of goods over the internet, has boosted online sales, especially products like books, CDs and computer products; it has also raised important new ethical challenges. 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 “hacking”, ‘cracking”, or “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 “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. 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
In the words of Alejo and Joan (2005), regarding E-commerce and its Corporate social responsibility issues, “Reality is virtual, virtual reality-the reality that exist in the form of bits and bytes activated by electromagnetic energy and made powerful by IT and the internet-has changed the way we relate to one another. It has also revolutionized economics and business”. The authors state that while e-commerce, the sale of goods over the internet, has boosted online sales, especially products like books, CDs and computer products; it has also raised important new ethical challenges. 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 “hacking”, ‘cracking”, or “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 “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. 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
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.