The predominance of online shopping is becoming a fact beyond dispute. Many people agree that online shopping can be quick, handy and convenient. Tenacious shoppers find aggressive discounts online as many vendors compete to offer the best retail price and quality. According to McKeown and Brocca (2009), 13.4 million purchase transactions were made online in Canada in 2001.The enormous growth of technology and its hefty impact on online shopping have had a direct impact on the rapid popularity of e-commerce. Statistics show that 8.4 million Canadians at the age of 16 years and up made 70 million online orders in 2007 (p.8). Most of these transactions were implemented using popular shopping websites like eBay, Amazon, or Expedia, for instance. However, this unprecedented increase of online shopping has spawned an ongoing escalation of technological risks like scamming, hacking, cybercrimes, and fraud which put shoppers’ privacy in jeopardy. Consequently, the personal data that online customers impetuously disclose are closely monitored and sometimes misused by marketers or other data gathering agencies.
Consumers’ awareness of the susceptibility of personal information security measures is alarmingly low. Privacy intruders can easily come up with tricks to track customers ' online shopping and internet surfing habits and build extensive personal profiles by simply observing the Internet Protocol (IP) address of their computers, and often through digital ‘cookies’ or
The concern about privacy on the Internet is increasingly becoming an issue of international dispute. ?Citizens are becoming concerned that the most intimate details of their daily lives are being monitored, searched and recorded.? (www.britannica.com) 81% of Net users are concerned about threats to their privacy while online. The greatest threat to privacy comes from the construction of e-commerce alone, and not from state agents. E-commerce is structured on the copy and trade of intimate personal information and therefore, a threat to privacy on the Internet.
Time Newspaper has learnt that it's not surprising that Internet companies have electronic dossiers that contain personal information for individuals who subscribe to the websites. Generally, these companies have obtained the information from people based on individual's visit to the website, sent and received emails, tagged photos, and searches people carry out. However, the extent of personal information known by these Internet companies has remained largely unknown as well who they provide and/or sell this information to. However, Internet companies continue to gather lots of personal information from different people who focus on carrying out online activities on a daily basis. Currently, it's estimated that these firms gather personal information from nearly 500 million users but are hesitant to provide this information to the other firms or individuals. As their unwillingness to share has attracted significant congressional inquiry, things could finally change in California following the introduction of a bill that may force companies to disclose the kind of personal information they have gathered and how this information is being used.
However, if innovations help users protect privacy, the market will react positively. The society, culture, and economy are always changing in today’s age due to privacy breaches, as well as new cybersecurity measures to help ensure the user that their information will not be
Online commerce was introduced to consumers in the mid-1990’s, and in the years since, it has grown exponentially. It started out virtually nonexistent and has become a multi-billion dollar industry. Nearly every retail sector has entered online commerce; clothing, electronics, home, health and grooming items, even food and groceries are starting to gain traction online. Online commerce sites rival traditional brick and mortar stores such as Walmart and Target, as well as other big-box stores. As online retailers such as Amazon continue to expand, many brick and mortar stores have been making their way online, indicative of an increasing movement towards online commerce. With more than 80% of the online population having made an online
As shown above, internet privacy and security is an expanding crisis in the United States. While this issue is prominent, stating the problem is pointless without suggesting solutions.
The growing transaction over the internet and the increase of the criminal activities make the privacy an important topic in the e-commerce transactions. This paper aims to develop a list of privacy features in the e-commerce activities. Moreover, this paper will take a critical look at the privacy policies of four well-known websites. The comparative method will be used to develop and discuss the privacy policies in the era of the e-commerce.
69% of internet shoppers aged 25 - 35 make purchase online. Internet shopping is exploding in Canada that it is why it is necessary to mention Amozon.ca. “We believe that Amazon.ca could triple or quadruple its revenues in Canada over the next few years and begin to have a noticeable impact over a broader number of categories,” due to the research, direction by BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc. Amazon graded as one of the most popular online website in Canada. This year online retail spending in Canada hit $20.6 billion, they expecting internet sales will increase to $33.8-billion in
Many users are subject of Security and Privacy on the Internet issue. The term "information" now is more used when defining a special product or article of trade which could be bought, sold, exchanged, etc. Often the price of information is higher many times than the cost of the very computers and technologies where it is functioning. Naturally it raises the need of protecting information from unauthorized access, theft, destruction, and other crimes. However, many users do not realize that they risk their security and privacy online.
It is shown that most cyber criminals target the younger and older generations when trying to invade our personal information. Online shopping is a huge target when it comes to these categories because, many teens use online shopping to buy things such as clothes,
Camp, a director of Security Informatics program, assistant professor of Telecommunication and computer science in Indiana University School of Informatics and Computing, argues how the United States has put into a lot of effort to assure the right to privacy, yet there is no certainty that it is protecting people browsing the internet. The article continues, stating that internet browsing has no legal protection in the United States, making it easy for people to spy on each other’s lives and steal personal information. The article questions the value of privacy and confidentially when it comes to the internet. For example, when people research something or create an account in the internet that includes providing personal information to the site such as your birthdate, occupation, and interests that personal information is distributed and accessed to companies or third parties to use at their advantage. In some case the information is often used to personalize advertisements when you are on the internet or in other situations the information is used to steal one’s identity. In this article we are able to see how technology is powerful by itself without the control of government regulations. The article encourages the readers to question existing laws that protect our privacy and security as there is no boundaries in the internet to prevent people from hacking into your personal
Throughout time, privacy and security have been two heavily debated topics. There has always been a struggle to find middle ground between a private environment and a secure environment, but the dawn of technology and the Internet has made this struggle even more difficult. The Internet has drastically decreased the expectation of privacy of any and all individuals that have ever used it. Technology in general can pose a threat to an individual’s physical and virtual security. The Internet has also brought forth a sense of anonymity to those looking to conceal their true identities, some of which plan to commit horrific crimes. Privacy and security go hand in hand, however security is by far the most important.
The concern about privacy on the Internet is increasingly becoming an issue of international dispute. ?Citizens are becoming concerned that the most intimate details of their daily lives are being monitored, searched and recorded.? (www.britannica.com) 81% of Net users are concerned about threats to their privacy while online. The greatest threat to privacy comes from the construction of e-commerce alone, and not from state agents. E-commerce is structured on the copy and trade of intimate personal information and therefore, a threat to privacy on the Internet.
The digital age has become our way of life,but for all this information there are consequences like our privacy. We are constantly being tracked and recorded on the internet. (Risen, P. 1) Tracking, however, is not the only thing we have to worry about. There are also hackers that get a hold of that private data a leak it to the world. For example,” in the year 2015, 505 data breaches have targeted businesses, government agencies, and other institutions, exposing more than 139 million records”. (Risen, P.) All of those people had their information spread just by using the internet for things we think and good and time savers like online shopping. Another example is “The 30 million users of AshleyMadison.com thought they had some privacy – until hackers last week exposed their names, addresses and credit card payments…”(Risen, P.) Both show how much of an invasion of our privacy the collection of our private data can be. Our privacy to what we do is not safe if not just recorded, but it also can be leaked to the whole
The idea behind this study is of great significance because e-commerce (online shopping) has grown tremendously since the turn of the century. It has shaped the way people do shopping for the most part.
The traditional retail market has been transformed by technological advances. The internet today has allowed consumers to purchase various products from home ranging from apparel to groceries. The online shopping market has grown significantly within the past decade, leading to many online e-commerce startups such as Amazon, eBay, and mobile start-ups such as Instacart. While e-commerce provides convenience for shopping, it has created major disruption to the traditional shopping industries. Traditional retailers have since faced bankruptcy due to their inability to compete with such start-ups. The traditional American toy store, Toys R Us, announced its state of bankruptcy just last month due to a significant decline in sales. More and more consumers are turning to online giants such as Amazon to purchase daily items as a result of convenience. According to the Washington Post, Toys R Us is just one of more than 300 retailers to file for bankruptcy this year, as Americans ditch the shopping mall in favor of their laptops, smartphones, and tablets (Bhattarai, 2017). Shopping which used to require walking or a vehicle trip to stores is no longer required for consumers with online shopping. Online shopping has appealed to consumers worldwide by encompassing the business aspect of service convenience which constitute saving time and/or effort (Jiang, Yang, and Jun, 2012). For consumers whom have busy lives and those whom are physically disabled, online shopping is a positive