E-commerce 2023-2024: Business, Technology, Society (PDF)

E-commerce 2023–2024: business. technology. society. Eighteenth Edition Chapter 8 Ethics and Law in E-commerce © 2023 Pearson Education Ltd. All Rights Reserved Learning...

E-commerce 2023–2024: business. technology. society. Eighteenth Edition Chapter 8 Ethics and Law in E-commerce © 2023 Pearson Education Ltd. All Rights Reserved Learning Objectives 8.1 Understand why e-commerce raises ethical, social, and political issues. 8.2 Understand basic concepts related to privacy and information rights, the practices of e-commerce companies that threaten privacy, and the different methods that can be used to protect online privacy. 8.3 Understand the various forms of intellectual property and the challenges involved in protecting it. 8.4 Understand how the Internet is governed and identify major governance issues raised by the Internet and e-commerce. 8.5 Identify major public safety and welfare issues raised by e- commerce. © 2023 Pearson Education Ltd. All Rights Reserved Understanding Ethical, Social, and Political Issues in E-commerce Internet, like other technologies, can: – Enable new crimes – Affect environment – Threaten social values Costs and benefits must be carefully considered, especially when there are no clear-cut legal or cultural guidelines © 2023 Pearson Education Ltd. All Rights Reserved A Model for Organizing the Issues Issues raised by Internet and e-commerce can be viewed at individual, social, and political levels Four major categories of issues – Information rights – Property rights – Governance – Public safety and welfare © 2023 Pearson Education Ltd. All Rights Reserved Figure 8.1 The Moral Dimensions of an Internet Society © 2023 Pearson Education Ltd. All Rights Reserved Basic Ethical Concepts Ethics: Study of principles used to determine right and wrong courses of action Responsibility: individuals, organizations, and societies are responsible for their actions Accountability: individuals, organizations, and societies should be held accountable for their actions Liability: Laws permitting individuals to recover damages Due process – Laws are known, understood – Ability to appeal to higher authorities to ensure laws applied correctly © 2023 Pearson Education Ltd. All Rights Reserved Analyzing Ethical Dilemmas Process for analyzing ethical dilemmas: 1. Identify and clearly describe the facts 2. Define the conflict or dilemma and identify the higher-order values involved 3. Identify the stakeholders 4. Identify the options that you can reasonably take 5. Identify the potential consequences of your options © 2023 Pearson Education Ltd. All Rights Reserved Candidate Ethical Principles Golden Rule Universalism Slippery Slope Collective Utilitarian Principle Risk Aversion No Free Lunch The Social Contract Rule © 2023 Pearson Education Ltd. All Rights Reserved Privacy and Information Rights Privacy – Moral right of individuals to be left alone, free from surveillance or interference from other individuals, organizations, or state Information privacy: 4 premises – Right to control information collected about them  “Right to be forgotten” – Right to know when information is collected and give consent  “Informed consent” – Right to personal information due process – Right to have personal information stored in a secure manner © 2023 Pearson Education Ltd. All Rights Reserved Information Collected by E-commerce Companies (1 of 2) Emergence of Internet, web, mobile devices has enabled enormous collections of personal data Personally identifiable information (PII) – Any data that can be used to identify, locate, or contact an individual Anonymous information – Person not identified by name, only assigned code – Could include demographic information such as age, occupation, income, zip code, as well as behavioral data such as browsing behavior © 2023 Pearson Education Ltd. All Rights Reserved Information Collected by E-commerce Companies (2 of 2) Types of personal information collected – Name, address, phone, e-mail, social security number – Bank and credit card accounts – Gender, age, occupation, location and location history, photograph, education – Likes, preference data, transaction data, clickstream data, device used for access, browser type © 2023 Pearson Education Ltd. All Rights Reserved Marketing: Profiling, Behavioral Targeting, and Retargeting Advertising networks – Third-party tracking used to track consumer and browsing behavior on Web – Build and refresh profiles of consumers – Third-party tracking being phased out Profiling – Creation of data images that characterize online individual and group behavior – Anonymous profiles – Personal profiles – Facial recognition a new dimension © 2023 Pearson Education Ltd. All Rights Reserved Mobile Devices: Privacy Issues Cross-device tracking – Cross-device graph Persistent location tracking Mobile apps – Funnel personal information to mobile advertisers for targeting ads – Track and store user locations – Track users’ use of other apps © 2023 Pearson Education Ltd. All Rights Reserved Social Networks: Privacy and Self-Revelation Social networks – Encourage sharing personal details – Pose unique challenge to maintaining privacy Meta – Massive database about Facebook and Instagram users – Serving ads to users not on Facebook or Instagram – Sharing information with third parties Personal control over personal information versus organization’s desire to monetize social network © 2023 Pearson Education Ltd. All Rights Reserved Privacy and Terms of Use Policies Website Terms of Use notices also often also function as privacy policies Recent study showed these polices would take average reader eight hours to read Have conflicting statements Little oversight and comparison between policies of different companies © 2023 Pearson Education Ltd. All Rights Reserved Technology Solutions Solutions include: – Apple Intelligent Tracking Protection – Google Privacy Sandbox – Apple App Tracking Transparency – Differential privacy software – Privacy default browsers – Message encryption – Spyware and ad blockers – Secure e-mail and anonymous remailers – Cookie blockers and managers – Public key encryption © 2023 Pearson Education Ltd. All Rights Reserved Property Rights in Personal Data Recognizing property right in personal data one possible solution to online privacy issues Variety of firms that are seeking to allow users to reclaim control over and be able to monetize their own personal information Examples: – Digi.me – Mecco.me – CitizenMe © 2023 Pearson Education Ltd. All Rights Reserved Intellectual Property Rights Intellectual property – Products of human mind – Generally, belongs to its creator Major ethical issue – How should we treat property that belongs to others? Major social issue – Is there continued value in protecting intellectual property in the Internet age? Major political issue – How can Internet and e-commerce be regulated or governed to protect intellectual property? © 2023 Pearson Education Ltd. All Rights Reserved Intellectual Property Protection Main types of protection – Copyright – Patent – Trademark law – Trade secrets law Goal of intellectual property law – Balance two competing interests-public and private Maintaining this balance of interests is always challenged by the invention of new technologies © 2023 Pearson Education Ltd. All Rights Reserved Copyright (1 of 3) (1 o Protects original forms of expression (not ideas) from being copied by others for a period of time Fair use doctrine Digital Millennium Copyright Act – First major effort to adjust copyright laws to Internet age – Makes it illegal to make, distribute, or use devices that circumvent technology-based protections of copyrighted materials – Safe-harbor provisions © 2023 Pearson Education Ltd. All Rights Reserved Patents (1 of 2) Grant owner exclusive monopoly on ideas behind an invention for a period of time, typically 20 years Invention must be new, non-obvious, novel Encourages inventors Promotes dissemination of new techniques through licensing Stifles competition by raising barriers to entry © 2023 Pearson Education Ltd. All Rights Reserved Patents (2 of 2) Selected e-commerce patents – Amazon: One-click purchasing – Priceline: “Name Your Own Price” sales – DoubleClick: Dynamic delivery of online advertising – Overture: Pay for performance search – Google: PageRank algorithm search technology – Facebook: Algorithm for developing personalized stories and newsfeed on a social network © 2023 Pearson Education Ltd. All Rights Reserved Trademarks Identify, distinguish goods, and indicate their source Purpose – Ensure consumer gets what is paid for/expected to receive – Protect owner against piracy and misappropriation Infringement Dilution – Federal Trademark Dilution Act and Trademark Dilution Revision Act © 2023 Pearson Education Ltd. All Rights Reserved Trade Secrets Business procedures, formulas, methods of manufacture and service delivery May not be unique or novel Trade secrets are – (a) secret – (b) have commercial value to owner – (c) owner has taken steps to protect 2016 Defend Trade Secrets Act © 2023 Pearson Education Ltd. All Rights Reserved Governance: Can the Internet Be Controlled? Governance: Involves social control Early advocates: Internet could not be controlled – However, experience has shown that it actually can be easily controlled, monitored, and regulated from a central location Currently, in a mixed mode environment – Self-regulation, via variety of Internet policy and technical bodies, co-exists with increasing amount of government regulation © 2023 Pearson Education Ltd. All Rights Reserved Antitrust, Monopoly, and Market Competition Belief that some e-commerce firms have become too powerful and are restricting competition by buying out smaller innovative firms and engaging in restraint of trade – Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Meta (Facebook and Instagram) (Big Tech) Critics are now proposing that Big Tech giants be broken up or regulated Federal and state governments have filed a number of different lawsuits © 2023 Pearson Education Ltd. All Rights Reserved Public Safety and Welfare (1 of 3) Protection of children against pornography and other harmful content  Passing legislation regulating pornography that will survive court challenges has proved difficult  Communications Decency Act found unconstitutional  Children’s Internet Protection Act finally upheld  Many other types of harmful online content  Instagram content found to have harmful effect on mental health  California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act © 2023 Pearson Education Ltd. All Rights Reserved Public Safety and Welfare (2 of 3) Efforts to restrict sales of cigarettes and e-cigarettes – Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act Efforts to control sales of both medically prescribed and illegal drugs – Regulated Internet pharmacies offer valuable service – Many rogue pharmacies – Darknet a haven for online purveyors of illegal drugs  Some efforts to shut darknet marketplaces down have been successful, but then others emerge to take their place © 2023 Pearson Education Ltd. All Rights Reserved