Page 408 - Introduction to Electronic Commerce and Social Commerce

396 12 Implementation Issues: From Globalization to Justification, Privacy, and Regulation

Table 12.4 Typical safeguards to minimize exposure to risk of crimi- Examples of ethical issues discussed elsewhere in this
nal or civil charges book are channel conflict (Chapter 3), pricing conflict (Chapter
1. Does the website clearly post shipping policies and guarantees? 3), disintermediation (Chapters 3 and 4), and trust (Chapter 9).
Can the selling company fulfill its policies and guarantees? Does Two additional EC-related ethical issues are Internet use that
it comply with Federal Trade Commission (FTC) rules? is not work-related and code of ethics. See also investopedia.
2. Does the website clearly articulate procedures for customers to follow
when returning a shipment or when seeking a refund for products or com/terms/c/code-of-ethics.asp. For legal considerations of
services not received, or received in bad or damaged condition? e-commerce, see Zottola (2014).
3. Has the company checked partners’ backgrounds before entering
into agreements with third-party vendors and supply chain Internet Use that Is Not Work-Related
partners? Do those agreements include protection of the
company against all possible risks?
4. Is there sufficient customer support staff, and are they knowledgeable As described earlier, a majority of employees use e-mail and
and adequately trained to process customers’ inquiries? surf the Web for purposes not related to work. The use of
company property (i.e., computers, networks) for e-mail and
Internet use may create risk and waste time. The degree of
Monitoring Employees: Is It Ethical? risk depends on the extent to which the company has imple-
mented policies and procedures to prevent and detect illegal
Google and several other software application providers have uses. For example, companies may be held liable for their
incorporated new spyware on company smartphones given to employees’ use of e-mail to harass other employees, partici-
employees, which enables employers to monitor the where- pate in illegal gambling, or distribute child pornography.
abouts of their employees using the smartphones’ built-in GPS
tracking systems. Google’s Latitude enables companies to
know their employees’ location at all times. The ethical ques- SECTION 12.5 REVIEW QUESTIONS
tion is, whether this new power will be used by governments
to invade the privacy of an individual’s real- time whereabouts. 1. List seven ethical issues related to EC.
In other words, rules and procedures for ethical behavior are 2. List the major principles of ethics.
needed for business people practicing EC. Two major risks are 3. Define business ethics.
criminal charges and civil suits. Table 12.4 lists examples of 4. Give an example of an EC activity that is unethical but not
safeguards to minimize exposure to those risks. illegal.
5. How can employees abuse the Internet? How do small
companies handle this?
EC Ethical and Legal Issues 6. Describe the issues of monitoring employees.

There are many EC- and Internet-related ethical issues that
are related to legal issues (see Lewis 2014). These issues are 12.6 INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW
often categorized into intellectual property rights, privacy, AND COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT
free speech versus censorship, and fraud protection methods.
The legal system is faced with the task of maintaining a delicate
balance between preserving social order and protecting indi-
• Intellectual property rights. Ownership and value vidual rights. In this section, we explain some types of intel-
of information and intellectual property. Intellectual lectual property laws and the issues arising from EC.
property is difficult to protect on the Web. Owners are
losing a substantial amount of money due to piracy.
• Privacy. Because it is so difficult to protect the pri- Intellectual Property in E-Commerce
vacy of individuals on the Web, there are some coun-
tries that do not regulate privacy issues while others Intellectual property (IP) refers to property that derives from
have strict anti-invasion rules. the creative work of an individual, such as literary or artistic
• Free speech versus censorship. Free speech on the work. Intellectual property can be viewed as the ownership of
Web may result in offensive and harmful attacks on intangible assets, such as inventions, ideas, and creative work.
individuals and organizations. Therefore, some coun- It is a legal concept protected by patents, copyrights, trade-
tries have decided to censor material on the Internet. marks, and trade secret law (known as Intellectual Property
• Consumer and merchant protection against fraud. Law).
For e-commerce to succeed, it is necessary to protect There are various intellectual property law specialties, as
all transactions and participants against fraud. shown in Table 12.5. Those specialty laws are interrelated
and may even overlap.