A major concern of the e-commerce industry is that the difference of a normal company and an e-commerce one is the personalization that comes from knowing more about a user’s needs and wants. The industry’s response to the threat of consumer uprise and government regulation has been significant in the efforts of the bigger corporations. Groups such as CPEX, Customer Profile Exchange, created a coalition of Internet companies that will try to assure privacy advocates and consumers that they will protect the information consumers share and companies exchange. Corporations such as Microsoft, AOL, AT&T, Dell computer, and Time Warner proposed model international rules designed to make Internet shopping more secure. Last year, the Better Business Bureau launched its new program for certifying and monitoring the collection of personal data online, which was a substantial attempt to link the go between consumer’s privacy interests and business’s practices. The program gives qualified companies an electronic seal for their Website, which verifies that they adhere to their stated practices about what information they collect from consumers and how it is used. The first company to display to the BBB seal was Dell Computer. Among other industry attempts to deal with the privacy issue was the development of software products that help consumers evaluate the privacy policies of individual websites. For example, YOUpowered ™ not only helps consumers evaluate the privacy policies of individual websites but also gives an individual the option of sharing the information or not. However, all of these industry accomplishments could prevent a company called DoubleClick from acquiring Abacus Direct in November of 1999. Abacus is one of the country’s largest catalog databases companies and in the purchase, it was revealed that for the first time, an Internet advertiser could match names along with other personal info to be anonymously collected online. The stock market was quick to praise this financial move as such information would become extremely valuable to companies that wanted to pitch their products to an individual within a short amount of time. After the FTC began to investigate the company’s practices, the stock price fell immensely as investors speculated whether the government would become more intrusive than before.
On May 22, 2000, three of the five FTC commissioners favored new laws to protect consumer’s privacy online. While the FTC has recognized that the majority of large businesses have been getting the message of consumers and government interest, there are many more problems that arise with the inconsistencies of the smaller companies, and the overall distribution and sale of personal information to third parties. While widespread inconsistencies such as DoubleClick’s acquisition of Abacus are very hard to ignore, many smaller and struggling Internet companies could find it detrimental to their success to comply with new rules. Despite all of the industry’s attempts to self-regulate the consumer privacy issue, much of their findings are based upon the failure of sites to give consumers access to information that is collected about them. Both minor and major e-commerce companies have not entirely accepted this recommendation, in part because it is difficult and costly to implement. Consumer advocates have also expressed dissatisfaction for those companies where, in companies that state their statements of ‘Privacy policies,’ that the language of these cautions as ambiguous and confusing. For those that are also clear, the warnings and instructions are not standardized. 本新闻共 6页,当前在第 2页 1 2 3 4 5 6 |
