Post on 29-Apr-2023
Professional Ethical and Social Issues In Ecommerce
Samadara Methmali Page iiStudent ID NG/CBISM/01/06
Acknowledgement
First, I wish to express my sincere appreciation to my lecturer
Mrs. Chamila Attanayeka
For giving me the fullest support, and precious guidance throughout the preparation of this report
and presentation
The guidance received from my family members and my friends greatly inspired me to complete
this research successfully from the start. This would never have been possible without the
encouragement from my family members and friends
Thank you.
Professional Ethical and Social Issues In Ecommerce
Samadara Methmali Page iiiStudent ID NG/CBISM/01/06
Executive summary
This research attempted to find out the ethical, legal, professional and social issues in
Ecommerce. The report begins with introduction to the Ecommerce. Mainly Ecommerce issues
include hacking, selling consumer details to the third party, fake goods, product price etc.
Discuss the negative and the positive side of the Ecommerce according to the finding from
researches.
Nowadays most of the peoples are using Ecommerce websites to do the transactions. Because of
that there are issue are created based on the Ecommerce. Under this research, discuss about the
ethical, legal, social and professional side of the Ecommerce. Research articles, journals, book
and etc. used to identify the issues regarding to the Ecommerce. And more real incidents helps
to prove the identified issues are thru.
First segment based on the ethical side of the Ecommerce and what are the ethical theories
involve to the Ecommerce. Next segment based on the legal environment of the Ecommerce.
Under the legal side mention about what are the Acts involve to the Ecommerce. Then the next
fragment discuss about the professional background in Ecommerce. Under the professional
issues discuss about the BCS code of conduct to Ecommerce. And finally the social issues in
Ecommerce. In here mention about the research data and final analysis about the Ecommerce
issues and protection methods what consumers can user.
Professional Ethical and Social Issues In Ecommerce
Samadara Methmali Page ivStudent ID NG/CBISM/01/06
Table of ContentsAcknowledgement .......................................................................................................................... ii
Executive summary........................................................................................................................ iii
List of tables and Figures................................................................................................................ v
1.0Introduction............................................................................................................................- 1 -
2.0 Ethical Issues in Ecommerce ................................................................................................- 2 -
2.1 Hacking .............................................................................................................................- 3 -
2.2 Selling consumer details to the third party and using consumer details for other purpose.- 5
-
2.3 Displaying fake goods.......................................................................................................- 6 -
2.4 Quality of the products......................................................................................................- 6 -
2.5 Price of the products .........................................................................................................- 7 -
2.6 Buyers and sellers can lose jobs........................................................................................- 8 -
2.7 Creating customer accounts ..............................................................................................- 8 -
3.0 Legal Issues in Ecommerce ..................................................................................................- 9 -
4.0 Professional Issues in Ecommerce......................................................................................- 11 -
5.0 Social Issues in e-commerce...............................................................................................- 15 -
6.0 Conclusion ..........................................................................................................................- 19 -
7.0 References...........................................................................................................................- 20 -
Professional Ethical and Social Issues In Ecommerce
Samadara Methmali Page vStudent ID NG/CBISM/01/06
List of tables and Figures
Figures
Figure 1:- NEW YORK DAILY NEWS paper article................................................................- 4 -
Figure 2:- hacking website..........................................................................................................- 5 -
Figure 3:- Snapdel website..........................................................................................................- 6 -
Figure 4:- Wall mart website error..............................................................................................- 7 -
Figure 5:- EBay removes the comment that warns people about fake product ........................- 13 -
Figure 6:- Fake iPad was from China sold on AliExpress........................................................- 13 -
Figure 7:- World Wild Ecommerce Revenue ...........................................................................- 15 -
Figure 8:- browser address........................................................................................................- 16 -
Figure 9:- Check free ................................................................................................................- 17 -
Figure 11:- PayPal.....................................................................................................................- 18 -
Figure 10:- clichs share.............................................................................................................- 18 -
Tables
Table 1:- Hoffman et al.'s analysis..............................................................................................- 3 -
Table 2:- Benefit from B2B Ecommerce in developing markets .............................................- 16 -
Professional Ethical and Social Issues In Ecommerce
Samadara Methmali Page - 1 -Student ID NG/CBISM/01/06
1.0Introduction
The technology is growing very fast. Technology is growing under the human control.
Technology makes by human. Human make pronouncements about what product go to develop,
what are the security features used to new technology, what are the safety methods using to new
product, what are the user authentication methods used to access the systems and what
information’s are need to access the data (Sara 2001.) Because of the technology improvement
the whole world now likes a one village. The internet is a main improvement result from the
technology. The internet is like a global network. To that network millions of computers are
connected and as well as more than 100 countries are also connected. (Vangie 2014)People can
get service or product what they like via internet. This technology calls electronic commerce
(Shivani 2012).Commonly call it as Ecommerce. By using Ecommerce there is no limitlessness
to advertising and the website visible to the large number of peoples around the world. All
products or the services are up to date. The most important advantage of the Ecommerce is the
security. The shopping transactions can ensure with the high security and all the time the
verification is hurried of the credit card transaction. Customer personally doesn’t know about the
seller details. In the face to face business customer know the place as well as the seller details.
Because of the Ecommerce sites the cost is less than the physical storages and website has ability
to serve to the more customers than the physical storages. Ecommerce is a business using
technology not about the technology itself (Shivani 2012).
Professional Ethical and Social Issues In Ecommerce
Samadara Methmali Page - 2 -Student ID NG/CBISM/01/06
2.0 Ethical Issues in Ecommerce
Ecommerce business shake holders are website developers, sellers, consumers, website owners
and act. Because of the Ecommerce growths there are deferent ethical complications are
occurred. There for it is very significant to discuss about how Ecommerce ethically effected to
the society. The main responsible persons who are handling and website as well as the
programmers how developing the system. Most of the junior programmers don’t think about the
final product they developed. Those mention responsible persons are responsible to develop the
Ecommerce website considering the ethical issues not only give their emphasis to the final
product. Same as the customers are also responsible to knowing the negative effects from the
Ecommerce websites also the positive manner how it works.
According to the finding of the HCL research there is Ecommerce trust Ecommerce is in high
level. The main key reason of the lack of trust between the business and the customer on the web
because most of the people are willingness to provide information. (Hoffmand, Novak and
Peralta, 1999, p.80) To the online relationship exchange trust is essential because in the online
relationships connecting to the personal information as well as to the financial information. In
the virtual environment personal and financial information control is very low and they are
potential opportunism (Hoffman et al., 1999; Bhattacherjee, 2002). The lack of consumer trust is
the long term barrier for Ecommerce (Keen 1997). There are two deferent ways to give attention
to the trust; they are consumer to consumer (C2C) trust as well as to the business to consumer
(B2C) trust. In the background of the Ecommerce consumer trust can defined as the willingness
of the consumer to be vulnerable to the action of an online party by attractive in online
relationship connections with the party. Giving sensitive data to the online party as a part of the
connection, that consumer has no limited ability to keep an eye on or control the performance of
that online party (Hoffman et al., 1999) Web provider’s ability to prevent the information from
being hacked. But use information over the secondary control ability to organize personal
information for other purpose after the transaction is done.
Professional Ethical and Social Issues In Ecommerce
Samadara Methmali Page - 3 -Student ID NG/CBISM/01/06
Percentage Description
63% Consumers are didn’t provide personal details to the websites because they didn’t trust the
data.
69% Consumers are refusing to provide personal information because the websites are not
providing information on how the data will be used.
65% Consumers are point that is not worth working with the risk.
95% 95% of consumers are providing personal information to the web site at one time or when
asked the information.
Table 1:- Hoffman et al.'s analysis
(Hoffman et al., 1999)
According to the Hoffman et al.’s (1999) analysis most of the consumers are providing
information when the website request information from them. But mostly consumers are
providing information at one time. There are consumers who didn’t provide personal details
because of the information trust in low. As a programmer they are also responsible to develop
the system without any errors by using high technology.
2.1 Hacking
In the above analysis the all percentages are above 50%. There for the website transaction risk
might high because of the website hacking and misused data. On Friday 2013 a website run by
Singapore’s largest newspaper was hacked by popular member of online hacking group
unidentified. After the group noticeably warned to potential cyber attacks against to city state’s
government (Chun 2013). By hacking the online newspaper they can change news paper details
and hackers can modified the data. According to the universal declaration of human rights
Article 3 brings up everyone has the right to life, liberty and security person. By hacking
Singapore largest news paper the news paper details go to the other hand. Considering this
incident decks the UDHR Article 3. Under the human rights in ethics mention everyone has a
right to life, liberty and security person. Above news paper hacking incident breaks the human
rights in ethics also.
Professional Ethical and Social Issues In Ecommerce
Samadara Methmali Page - 4 -Student ID NG/CBISM/01/06
EBay website was hacked and they request all users to change password (Reisinger 2014). This
Ecommerce website confirmed on Wednesday this website corporate network was hacked and
the database with user’s passwords was compromised. By hacking password of the consumers
hackers can use consumer’s detail wrong way. And also hackers can change the password. There
for the data encryption is need to Ecommerce sites to stop the theft of private and sensitive data
of the consumers.
One of the hacker group claims to have released 13,000 passwords and credit card number from
websites including Wal-Mart and Amazon. In this incident all personal information was
contained in huge text file pasted Friday to the document sharing site Ghostbin. Under the ethics
general principles mention act with truthful. By sharing information after hacking breaks
mention ethics principle. And the hackers claimed the user data was stolen by online shopping
sites like Wal-Mart and Amazon as well as to the dating sites (Denis 2014). Under the Ethical
Principles clearly mention everyone has a right to life, liberty and security person. Above
hacking incident breaks the ethical principle.
Figure 1:- NEW YORK DAILY NEWS paper article
Above figure shows the New York daily news paper article of the password and credit numbers
released news. In the above Amazon and Wal-Mart websites are hacked and their consumers
details gone to the third-party. In the ethical principles mention keeps your word (promises).
There for this websites break the promises. Home Deport was target from the hackers in
September and more than 50 Million credits and other card data was hacked. And again this
website was hacked in April in 2014 and hackers manage to send emails to the consumers and
now Home Deport consumers have to countenance to the email spam risk.
HSBC hacked, 2.7 million credit cards exposed (Pierluigi 2014).
Professional Ethical and Social Issues In Ecommerce
Samadara Methmali Page - 5 -Student ID NG/CBISM/01/06
Above mention incidents are also breaks the UDHR Article 3.
Above figure shows the hacking website. This website teaches how to do the hacking step by
step.
2.2 Selling consumer details to the third party and using consumer details for other
purpose.
Most of the online transactions can do via credit or debit card information. Transaction details of
an Ecommerce include customer contact information there for that information can tender to the
third party for their marketing purposes. Sometimes the sellers are selling those contact
information to the third party. According to the general principles in ethics mention act with
integrity (honest, truthful). By selling consumer details to the third party the seller doesn’t act
truthful. This incident violates the general principle under ethics.
According to the findings 2001 in geo- location systems are increasing ethical issues in
Ecommerce (Udo 2001). Geo-location systems are using personal details to find the location of
the persons via internet. Some GPS systems are displaying hotel advertisement around that
selected location. In this situation attackers can attack these GPS systems and they can catch the
location of the consumers. To circumvent those risks system can use security actions for login to
the system. By attacking those systems and getting consumers location violate the consumer
security. Hackers use location technology to hijack ships and airplanes (Ryan 2013). In this
article mention Humphreys’ team build the most popular GPS spoofed, which is sending fake
signals. There for according to the universal declaration of human rights Article 3 mention
Figure 2:- hacking website
Professional Ethical and Social Issues In Ecommerce
Samadara Methmali Page - 6 -Student ID NG/CBISM/01/06
everyone has the right to security of person. Attacking GPS systems and catching locations
violate the universal declaration of human rights Article 3.
In the Ecommerce transactions consumer has to provide email address. By using those emails
sellers are providing E-business promoting. Mostly those types of email are sending under junk
email. The universal declarations of human rights Article 3 mention that everyone has rights of
security of privacy. There for consumer has to opt whether they need those emails or not. If it is
not, consumers can block those emails.
2.3 Displaying fake goods
Alibaba is a most popular Ecommerce website in China. This website was spending $160m for
fake goods (BBC News 2014). Above mention this website was hacked by hackers also. By
displaying fake goods the business customer relationship goes down. In the business customer
relationship is most important factor because most of the businesses are depend on the
customers. Displaying fake goods break customer trust. Under the general principles in ethics
mention act truthful to the consumers. There for displaying fake good breaks the general
principle in ethics. And Alibaba spend over $160m to remove fake goods from the website (Sean
2014).
2.4 Quality of the products
The other problem is dependability of the sellers if they consider about the quality of the product
and the service they provide. Some Ecommerce websites are displaying fake details of the
product quality. Samsung Galaxy Core2 smart phone buy for his wife but package is arriver from
Snapdel.com they contained a brick and soap without sending phone.
Figure 3:- Snapdel website
Professional Ethical and Social Issues In Ecommerce
Samadara Methmali Page - 7 -Student ID NG/CBISM/01/06
Above figure shows the Snapdel.com Ecommerce website image. The title of the news is “buy a
Samsung Phone online in India and you get a brick’ (Adi 2014). Above incident shatter the
General principle in ethics. In general principles mention act honestly and truthful. In Stella
Service Study 2013 mention one in 10 Ecommerce packages are arriving with damaged (Adriana
2013). Those happenings are make consumers unhappy. Most of consumers are waiting for the
goods what they order. If those products are not in good level or fake ones they will be unhappy.
If the ordered product is very expensive in that time consumers will worry about spend money.
In this situation as a consumer they can request to exchange for the damage product. As well as
consumer can leave negative feedback about the service mentioning the all negative side of the
product that reserved.
2.5 Price of the products
Some Ecommerce websites are promoting price and the actual price is deferent. Advertisements
promoting products features are also deferent in the actual product. Doing those things they can
track consumer’s behavior from the website. This is unethical and displaying false information of
the products and services does not follow the general principle in ethics. Some websites are
displaying out dated prices of the goods. Wal-Mart website allowed to consumers to buy $600
electronics form only $8.85 (Susanna 2013). In this incident happened in 2013 and consumers
shared the details through the social media sites. Finally Wal-Mart said they scan the millions of
the items if there are more technical errors are in the website.
Above figure shows the Wall-Mart website error. 24 inch high-definition Viewsonic computer
monitor and digital projects displcay price was from $8.85. Website authorizes persons said this
Figure 4:- Wall mart website error
Professional Ethical and Social Issues In Ecommerce
Samadara Methmali Page - 8 -Student ID NG/CBISM/01/06
website was not hacked from hackers this is a technical error. There for as a developers and the
maintain devotion responsibility for this incident.
2.6 Buyers and sellers can loose jobs
In the Ecommerce business buyers and sellers are mainly involve to the Ecommerce business. If
the Ecommerce business is going down store keepers and sellers lose their jobs and ultimately
they will not have any other jobs in this field because they were trained to work with the
Ecommerce business not in the usual business. In the Ecommerce business consumers can
directly purchase products from the manufactures. According to the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights Article 23 (1) talk about everyone has the right to work and free choice of
employment, to just and favorable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
Because of that Ecommerce violate the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 23 (1).
Using Ecommerce business reduces the storage cost and staff cost. No need to worry about the
physical storage to start the business. That is a main advantage in the Ecommerce. New
consumers cost to online sellers at least 20% to 40% cost serving equivalent transitional market
(Reichheld & Schefter 2000).
2.7 Creating customer accounts
To do the transactions Ecommerce website asks from consumers to create an account for them.
Under that consumer has to provide name, email address, birthday act. Some consumers are
providing fake information to the website and they are doing transaction using fake information.
Study in 1998 found that 40% users in Ecommerce was using fake information in their accounts
and 6% on small amount of consumers are only using correct information (Eighth User Sevey
1998). According to the general principle in ethics mention act truthful.
Professional Ethical and Social Issues In Ecommerce
Samadara Methmali Page - 9 -Student ID NG/CBISM/01/06
3.0 Legal Issues in Ecommerce
When producing Ecommerce website, Ecommerce website developing companies must consider
about the legal side of the Ecommerce. Under the legal side the computer misuse act, data
protection act, software general policies and US copyright act and etc. can be taken. Because of
the Ecommerce growth there are so many legal issues happened.
In the process in Ecommerce mostly providing consumer personal details like name, address,
NIC number, birthday etc to fill the customer registration form. To do the payments consumer
has to provide credit or debit card details. Ecommerce websites must register under the Data
Protection Act. If the consumer collects information about the people, consumers act. Those
mention information includes name, telephone number, address and email address. This act can
apply to any type of business and must sure about the data security and if they want to delete
details that facility also must be there. The Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulation
2000 also applies to many Ecommerce websites. Under this regulation mention must provide
clear information about the product and service before purchase and also must be clear about the
postage and packing cost and tax. Website must allow a "cooling off" era where by the customer
can change their mind and cancel or return the order within 7 working days for most goods.
Anonymous leaked hacking group hack 13,000 Account Passwords and Credit Cards from
Amazon, Dell, Xbox and more (Praveen 2014). By considering above incidents hackers hacked
the account password and credit card details. Under the Data protection Act 1998 -01 (a) mention
consumers details can process lawful if the consumer provide there action to do so. By hacking
the websites breaks Data protection Act 1998 -01 (a) statement. Credit card details’ hacking is
valuable risk in Ecommerce. By using credit card details hackers can do transactions and also
hackers can do their payments by using those credit card details.Geo-location systems are using
personal details to find the location of the persons via internet. Using these systems customers
always point out the location data. By hacking the system consumer location details can go to the
hacker’s hand. Above incident violate the Data protection Act 1998 -01 (a), consumers details
can process lawful if the consumer provide there action to do so. By using correct testing
patterns can avoid those errors.
Professional Ethical and Social Issues In Ecommerce
Samadara Methmali Page - 10 -Student ID NG/CBISM/01/06
On Friday 2013 a website run by Singapore’s largest newspaper was hacked (Chun 2013). By
hacking the online newspaper they can change news paper details and hackers can modified the
data. There for this incident breaks the Computer Misused Act 1990 (3) statement. In the
Computer Misused Act 1990 (3) talk about the unauthorized access and modification of the
computer materials.
In 1998 recorded 30% of all American online emails were attacked from the spam mails. Spam
blocker can use to block down the amount of spam mail. Under the unsolicited Commercial
Electronic Mail act mention all the spam mails are must indicate the word Advertisement and
also must include the content name and the address of the sender. Some spam mails sending false
information to the consumers. And some spam emails send adware to the users while visiting to
the Ecommerce website that adware harm to the consumer’s computer.
Ecommerce using electronic documents in the entire all process. By hacking electronic
documents can change and modify. Computer Misuse Act 3 statement talks about that
unauthorized access and modification of the computer materials. But there are advantages than
the usual document method. f
American management association 2003 exposed that more than half of the organizations in US
use email monitoring for employee. Some of the online interviews are done by companies and
they can capture their photographs and by using those photographs they can do marketing. Under
the Data Protection Act 1998 -01 (a) state personal details of the employee can used only with
the employee permission. Under the Software General Policy states that computer Software
copyright cannot be copied for use of a person or to be distributed unless who has got the
necessary authorization to do. Software copyright could lead to penalties under the US Copyright
Act. Some Ecommerce websites are selling copies of software, movies etc. And the price also
lower than the original price.
In Ecommerce domain is a big part to the Ecommerce business. Owners have to make sure to
protect domain name. To do so they can follow trademark law. Trade mark is a will be a symbol
or a word that used to identify the good or service to the consumer
Professional Ethical and Social Issues In Ecommerce
Samadara Methmali Page - 11 -Student ID NG/CBISM/01/06
4.0 Professional Issues in Ecommerce
Ecommerce professional Issues can talk about the both side of developers and the sellers. Today
professional website hackers grow very fast. Some websites are displaying advertisements to hire
professional hackers. http://neighborhoodhacker.com/ Is one of the hackers for hire website. In
this website advertise their team having high skills for hacking and those professional hackers
can hack email, Face book, websites, social media, and more. They are providing this facility to
recover password and they are telling that they can protect websites using new technology.
Hacker- soft website publishing the all computer systems hacking methods and those websites
can use any one because they are providing all instructions to follow. In Ecommerce websites
main attack came from hackers. That is the main threat in Ecommerce. By publishing those
hacking advertisements and hackers websites that highly effect to the Ecommerce. Because of
the technology growth the negative side is this. Working iCloud Hacking tool released on New
Year 2015 (Praveen 2015). By releasing hacking tools also increase the hacking incidents.
Ecommerce cover three types of transactions. They are business to consumer (B2C), business to
government (B2G) and business to business (B2B) (Nilima 2013).
Anonymous leaked hacking group hack 13,000 Account Passwords and Credit Cards from
Amazon, Dell, Xbox and more (Praveen 2014)
HSBC hacked, and 2.7 million credit cards exposed (Pierluigi 2014).
In Friday 2013 a website run by Singapore’s largest newspaper was hacked (Chun 2013).
Home Deport was targeted from the hackers in September and more than 50 Million credits and
other card data was hacked (Ben, Micgael and Dune 2014).
By looking above mention real word examples clearly seen that hacking websites is violated the
BCS Code of Conduct 01 (a). Hone deports also attack from the hackers and 50 million of credit
card data deposed. Using those details hackers can change details also.
BCS Code of Conduct 01 (a) states that;
Have due regard for public health, privacy, security and wellbeing of others and the
environment.
Above mention incidents break the BCS Code of Conduct 01 (a).
Professional Ethical and Social Issues In Ecommerce
Samadara Methmali Page - 12 -Student ID NG/CBISM/01/06
In the transactions consumer has to provide consumer details to the Ecommerce website. Sellers
can sell those details third party for marketing purpose. According to the BCS Code of Conduct
03 (d) break above incident.
BCS Code of Conduct 03 (d) states that; Duty to relevant authority such information should not
be used by the organization itself and giving to the third party without permission from the
information owner.
In the E-business consumers are checking product usually using product specification and the
comments of the consumers who purchase the product before. Consumer can check the product
after the product reserve. Samsung Galaxy Core2 smart phone buy for his wife but package is
arriver from Snapdel.com they contained a brick and soap without sending phone. The title of the
news is “buy a Samsung Phone online in India and you get a brick’ (Adi 2014). After reserving
the product sellers contact will loose. There for this incident violate BCS Code of Conduct 03 (e)
BCS Code of Conduct 03 (e) states that;
Shall not maintains any level of competence that you do not possess. True information about the
product and services sellers cant suspended.
EBay admits it banned a Whistleblower warning Shoppers about fake products (Julie 2014). And
website removing the fake products and blocked sellers also. And EBay removes the comment
that warns people about fake product. There for this incident violate BCS Code of Conduct 03
(e).
Professional Ethical and Social Issues In Ecommerce
Samadara Methmali Page - 13 -Student ID NG/CBISM/01/06
Fake iPad was from China sold on Aliexpress.com. This iPad all details are same to the original
one but the product weight is wrong. Original product weight is 2Kg and this fake product
weight is 1Kg. There for this incident violate BCS Code of Conduct 03 (e)
Consumers are angry by fake online payment which tricks the consumers using fake websites
with fake stocks. Making fake profit is injuring to the consumer property. Consumers will invest
money by people on false stocks this breaks the BSC Code of Conduct 02 (f).
BCS Code of Conduct 02 (f) states that; shall avoid injuring others, their property, reputation or
employment by false or malicious or negligent action or inaction.
In Stella Service Study 2013 mention one in 10 Ecommerce packages are arriving with damaged
(Adriana 2013). The main problem in Ecommerce is product packing. Most of the products are
Figure 5:- EBay removes the comment that warns people about fake product
Figure 6:- Fake iPad was from China sold on AliExpress
Professional Ethical and Social Issues In Ecommerce
Samadara Methmali Page - 14 -Student ID NG/CBISM/01/06
damage when the product reserve to the consumer. And some product quality is low. Consumers
are not responsible for the quality of the product and sellers who are having responsibility about
the quality of the product. Selling damage product to the consumer to the same price violates the
BCS Code of Conduct 03 (a).
BCS Code of Conduct 03 (a) states that;
“Shall carries out your professional responsibly with due care and diligence in accordance with
the relevant authority’s requirements whilst exercising the professional judgment at all time. “
Some Ecommerce websites are promoting price and the actual price is deferent. Advertisements
promoting products features are also deferent in the actual product. Those methods are used to
get the customer attraction. Some websites display price is deferent after payment is done.
According to the BCS Code of Conduct 03 (e) mention information on the performance of
product. According to the Professional code of conduct before implement the website developers
has to give attention to the public interest 01 (c) -website color, font size and act. Ecommerce
system must develop for all users. Under the public interest 01 (d) mention legitimate rights for
all users to use systems.
Professional Ethical and Social Issues In Ecommerce
Samadara Methmali Page - 15 -Student ID NG/CBISM/01/06
5.0 Social Issues in e-commerce
The main key reason of the lack of trust between the business and the customer on the web
because most of the people’s are willingness to provide information (Hoffmand, Novak and
Peralta, 1999, p.80). According to the Hoffman et al.’s (1999) analysis most of the consumers are
providing information when the website asked information from them. Giving sensitive data to
the online party as a part of the connection, that consumer has no limited ability to keep an eye
on or control the performance of that online party (Hoffman et al., 1999). According to the
finding there are some amount of consumers do not like to provide information to the e-
commerce systems because of the lack of trust between the consumer and the e-business.
(Source: Zorayda 2003)
International data Corp approximate 2000 value of e-commerce is US$350.38 billion. Above
figure shows the world wild Ecommerce revenue in 2000 and 2004. Considering this analyst,
Western Europe countries Ecommerce usage gone up and Asian countries Ecommerce usage
gone down (Zorayda 2003).
Figure 7:- World Wild Ecommerce Revenue
Professional Ethical and Social Issues In Ecommerce
Samadara Methmali Page - 16 -Student ID NG/CBISM/01/06
Table 2:- Benefit from B2B Ecommerce in developing markets
(Source: Zorayda 2003)
Above table shows the B2B Ecommerce in the year 2000 to 2004. Totally the B2B Ecommerce
is growth vastly in 2004 the percentage is 100% there for it means the B2B Ecommerce now in
top level. According to the above finding Ecommerce technology is growing fast but there are
some consumers do not trust the Ecommerce technology yet. By using digital certificates can
protect from the hackers. There are two methods to encryption using the digital certificates. They
are Secured-key encryption and ublic-key encryption. In the Secured key encryption method
both parties are having shared key that they only know. In the Public-key encryption method
sender and the receiver key is deferent. Receiver has to decrypt the data after reserved.
Secure Sockets Layer Protocol used in B2C Ecommerce transactions. It’s easy for consumers to
use without downloading additional software. If the customer enters to the secure checkout area
an Ecommerce website used SSL then the consumer endorsed that “consumer are view
information view the secrete connection”. Then the browser address changes from ‘http:// ‘ to
‘https://.
Above I state how the browser addresses changes.
According to the research in Computer and Communication Engineering mention secure online
shopping guideline to the consumers.
Countries 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 %of Worldwide B2B Ecommerce 2004
North
America
159.2 316.8 563.9 964.3 1600.8 57.7
Asia 36.2 68.6 121.2 199.3 300.6 10.8
Europe 26.2 52.4 132.7 334.1 797.3 28.7
Latin
America
2.9 7.9 17.4 33.6 58.4 2.1
Africa 1.7 3.2 5.9 10.6 17.7 0.6
Total 226.2 448.9 841.1 1541.9 2,774.8 100.0
Figure 8:- browser address
Professional Ethical and Social Issues In Ecommerce
Samadara Methmali Page - 17 -Student ID NG/CBISM/01/06
Do Shop at secure website:-
Website address display http://. The “s” display after “http” this will indicate the website is
secure one. If the website is secure the closed padlock displayed on the address bar in the screen.
If the lock is open that site is not secure one.
Research the Ecommerce website before order:-
Star out with the inexpensive order to learn the company industry.
Read the website privacy and security policies
Before do the transactions consumers must read the website privacy and security policies?
Ecommerce business responsibility is to provide guideline and company policies to the
consumer.
Keep password private
Use secure payment methods
Check free
Check free is one of the largest online bill processor in the world and they provide online
payment processing service.
Figure 9:- Check free
Professional Ethical and Social Issues In Ecommerce
Samadara Methmali Page - 18 -Student ID NG/CBISM/01/06
Above figure shows the clicks shear website. They are news paper publishers and they provide
electronic cash system and aimed to magazine.
Figure 11:- PayPal
PayPal provides payment processing services to businesses and o individuals. For individuals
they provide free payment clearing service.
Do not reused same password for other websites.
Give attention to the web site address
Do not drop for phishing messages
Do not reply or update credit card details, payment methods.
(Dharmendra 2013)
Figure 10:- clichs share
Professional Ethical and Social Issues In Ecommerce
Samadara Methmali Page - 19 -Student ID NG/CBISM/01/06
6.0 Conclusion
I can agree when evaluating this report the ethical, social, legal and professional issues are there.
Ecommerce is now familiar with all around the world. Because of that anyone can purchase
goods or service any time anywhere. And nowadays some consumers are willingness to do the
transaction via Ecommerce because of the real incident behind on the Ecommerce. Ecommerce
websites request to provide personal details and the credit or debit card details before transaction.
Providing credit card facts is main danger in Ecommerce. Because hacking incidents are in high
level in this technology.
As developers they can reduce Ecommerce risk by using new technology when developing the
website. And also the consumers can follow secure methods before do the transaction. Most of
the consumers are now familiar with the Ecommerce and with the new technology. Because of
that nowadays consumers also can protect them self.
As final word, consumer they are also having responsibility to protect from the hackers and as a
developer has responsibility to develop the system with high security and seller’s responsibility
to keep promise and act honestly to the consumers finally the website owners responsibility to
know the sellers details and they have to give attention to the monthly, yearly vise website
function details and also website update is also main factor to protect website and consumers
from the risks.
Professional Ethical and Social Issues In Ecommerce
Samadara Methmali Page - 20 -Student ID NG/CBISM/01/06
7.0 References
• Nardal, S., & Sahin, A., 2011, Ethical issues in e-commerce on the basis of online
retailing. Journal of Social Sciences,, 7(2), 190.
• BCS. 2014. BCS Code of Conduct. [ONLINE]
Available at:
http://www.bcs.org/category/6030
[Accessed 1 January 2015]
• United Nations. 2014. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. [ONLINE]
Available at:
http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/.
[Accessed 29 Desember2014]
• Denis slattery ., 2014, Hacker group claims to have released 13,000 passwords, credit
numbers from websites including Wal-Mart and Amazon, Daily news
• Juwana, H., 2003, Legal Issues on E-Commerce and E-Contract in Indonesia.
• Baase, S., 2012.A Gift of Fire: Social, Legal, and Ethical Issues for Computing
Technology. 4th ed. Prentice Hall: Pearson Education Ltd.
• Niranjanamurthy,M., Dharmendra,C., 2013, The study of Ecommerce security Issues and
solutions. International journal of advanced Research in Computer and Communication
Engineering, 2885-2894
• Fiona,F., Sid,D., 2002, Issues in Ecommerce. HCL research, 98-113
Professional Ethical and Social Issues In Ecommerce
Samadara Methmali Page - 21 -Student ID NG/CBISM/01/06
• The Wall Street Journal. Singapore Newspaper Site Hacked. [ONLINE]
Available at:
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304527504579171800666968542
[Accessed 30 Desember2014]
• Denis Slattery, 2014, Daily News. Hacker group claims to have released 13,000
passwords, credit numbers from websites including Walmart and Amazon. [ONLINE]
Available at:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/hacker-group-releases-13-000-passwords-
credit-card-numbers-article-1.2058515
[Accessed 30 Desember2014]
• Bill Hardekopf, 2014, Forbes. This Week in Credit Card News: Million Cards Hacked At
Staples, Hack-Proof Pants Now Available. [ONLINE]
Available at:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/moneybuilder/2014/12/26/this-week-in-credit-card-news-
million-cards-hacked-at-staples-hack-proof-pants-now-available/3/
[Accessed 31 Desember2014]
• Timothy J. Seppala, 2015, Engadget. Bing and Yahoo went down but hackers weren't to
blame. [ONLINE]
Available at:
http://www.engadget.com/2015/01/03/bing-yahoo-outage/?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000604
[Accessed 01 January 2015]
Professional Ethical and Social Issues In Ecommerce
Samadara Methmali Page - 22 -Student ID NG/CBISM/01/06
• Pierluigi Paganini, Security Affairs, 2014, HSBC Turkey hacked, 2.7 million credit cards
exposed. [ONLINE]
Available at:
http://securityaffairs.co/wordpress/30256/cyber-crime/hsbc-turkey-hacked.html
[Accessed 01 January 2015]
• Adi Narayan, Bloomberg, 2014. Buy a Samsung Phone Online in India and You Get a Brick.
[ONLINE]
Available at:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-12-08/buy-a-samsung-phone-online-in-india-and-
you-get-a-brick.html
[Accessed 05 January 2015]
• Susannka Kim, abc news, 2013. Wal-Mart Website Error Allowed Customers to Buy $600
Electronics for $8.85. [ONLINE]
Available at:
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/walmart-super-low-prices-website-glitch/story?id=20804317
[Accessed 07 January 2015]
• Petrovic-Lazarevic, S., &Sohal, A. S. (2004).Nature of e-business ethical dilemmas.
Information Management & Computer Security, 12(2), 167-177.
• Desai, M. S., & von der Embse, T. J. (2008). Managing electronic information: An ethics
perspective. Information Management & Computer Security, 16(1), 20-27.
• Lee, M. R. (2009). E-ethical leadership for virtual project teams. International Journal of
Project Management, 27, 456-463.
• Bush,V.S., Venable, B.T. & Bush A.J. (2000). Ethics and Marketing on the Internet: Practitioners Perception of Societal, Industry and Company Concerns. Journal of Business Ethics, 23(3), 237-248.
• Nardal, S., & Sahin A. (2011). Ethical Issues in E-Commerce on the Basis of Online Retailing. Journal of Social Sciences, 7(2), 190-198.