E-Commerce and an Alternative Perspective - Essay Example

E-commerce Student’s Name Institutional Affiliation Course Name Date of Submission E-commerce The world has experienced rapid proliferation of technology in the recent past. Today, technology affects almost every aspect of human life. Schneider (2011, p. 5) observed that almost everything that people do today involve the use of technology in one way or the other. The internet, in particular, has transformed the world into a global village. Following the development of the internet and its propagation, people can communicate and interact with any person, anywhere in the world via internet-enabled technologies, such as computers, Internet-enabled phones and tablets, just to name but a few. The greatest impact of the technological advancements experienced in the recent past has particularly been felt in the business world. The propagation of the internet across the globe has resulted in the emergence of e-commerce, which has benefited both to the e-commerce businesses and the shoppers a great deal (Damman et al., 2011, p. 41). For instance, e-commerce has been of immense benefit to shoppers since it has not only enhanced the sense of freedom, but also increased the convenience with which people shop. Businesses also benefit from e-commerce through increased market for business beyond the domestic market (Jamal, Maier and Sunder 2003, p. 287). Despite the benefits associated with e-commerce, the emergence of virtual spaces is increasingly raising concerns among online shoppers. Shoppers are, particularly concerned that the emergence of the emergence of virtual spaces is compromising the privacy, shopper rights and confidentiality of data. Accordingly, e-commerce activities have greatly affected various laws, including privacy laws, commercial laws and consumer laws. This discourse seeks to analyze the various legal implications and legislative concerns of e-commerce, which need greater attention from business regulators and policy makers. Although e-commerce has transformed the way people shop in the present day society, various concerns have emerged among consumers. Online shoppers are increasingly becoming concerned that the emergence of virtual spaces is threatening the privacy, consumer rights and confidentiality of data. Jamal, Maier and Sunder (2003, p. 17) note that privacy violation is one of the major concerns among online shoppers today. The researchers observed that, as much as consumers prefer to shop online to presenting themselves physically in stores, the increased privacy violation in online shopping is discouraging many consumers from shopping online. For instance, most payment systems that consumers use to buy products online reveal the true identities of who the shoppers are, something that discourages most consumers from shopping online (Anderson 2008, p. 84). Accordingly, most online shoppers see this as a privacy violation right, which ought to be protected by enacting laws that ensure that the identity of consumers are not revealed whenever they buy products or services online, notes Fazlollahi (2001, p. 42). Because of the growing concern about privacy violations, e-commerce experts believe that privacy laws in most parts of the world would be affected by being made stricter in order to protect consumers from privacy violations. Manzoor (2010, p. 72) demonstrates that privacy laws in most countries are much stricter that those of the United States. However, experts expect privacy laws to change in the coming years as the federal and state governments are expected to tighten the privacy laws to ensure that online users are protected from privacy violations. The absence of a single online consumer privacy law has seen the European Union come up with a Data Protection Directive that set the threshold for any global business. According to the directive, any EU member states are required to comply with the directive for purposes of enhancing consumer privacy protection in this globalized world. As such, the EU Data Protection is expected to impact greatly on all countries around the world that expect to do business with EU member states. This is because they would be required to ensure compliance with the directive for purposes of consumer privacy protection. In fact, Davis (2014) notes that privacy laws of most countries across the globe have been affected by the EU directive. This is because most countries are currently changing their privacy laws to ensure that they are harmonized with the EU requirements. In the Latin America, for instance, Chile became the first country to pass a data protection law in October 1999 called "Law for Protection of Private Life." The Chilean legislatures passed the law to ensure that online consumers are protected from the increased privacy violations witnessed on the internet. The passage of the privacy protection laws was also geared towards ensuring that Chile complies with the EU Data Protection Directives. In 2000, Argentina followed suit by enacting the Habeas Data Act for purposes of enhancing the protection of consumer data on the internet (Gonzalez-Perez and Leonard 2013, p. 16). In the same year, Mexico also enacted the so-called Mexican E-Commerce Act. The law broadened protection rights to include protection of electronic transaction that are under threat due to increased consumer transaction through the internet. Other countries in the Latin American that have been forced to enacted privacy laws in the recent times include Brazil (Code of Consumer Protection and Defense) and Peru (Data Protection Bill). Accordingly, as privacy violations become a big concern for consumers across the globe, it is expected that all countries will be forced to amend privacy laws to offer greater protection to consumer data. Another area of privacy that is of great concern to most online shoppers is the fact that some unscrupulous people and companies are increasingly using cookies and intelligent agents to track the activities of Internet users (Bowie and Jamal 2006, p. 328). As a result, such individuals and companies can expose all the activities that a consumer engages in on the internet, including confidential data. Cookies are usually placed on the computer of a web user, where it collects all the activities that a user does on the Internet and transmit them back to the server of the website. In this way, the cookies violate the privacy rights of consumers since it enables the website to recognize the identity of the user. E-commerce companies, for example, use cookies to track the identities of customers that visit their sites (Howard 2010). This is similar to the student's identity data that is saved on the university website and is accessible on Google. Although online users continue to raise concern regarding the continued violation of their privacy rights through the use of cookies to reveal the activities of online users, the U.S. government has not been able to address the concern. Quigley and Roy (2012, p. 84) argue that the federal government has not responded because it is a perpetrator of the same privacy violation. This is because the government agencies also use cookies to track the activities of visitors to government sites (Howard 2010). In this light, because unscrupulous people are increasingly using cookies to steal private data and information belonging to users, it would be necessary to the federal government to tighten laws on the use of cookies. This might require enacting a law that prevents companies from using cookies to track the activities of online users. Additionally, the law should ensure that companies are allowed to use cookies to track activities of online users upon obtaining the users' consent. In fact, the EU responded effectively to the growing consumer of the internet, when it issued the Directive on Privacy and Electronic Communication stating that companies or agencies can only use cookies to track the activities of users upon receiving their consent. The U.S. also made a positive effort towards protecting the privacy of online users when the Office of Management and Budget issued a policy prohibiting the persistent use of cookies to track the activities of online users (Evangelista 2012). The growth of e-commerce has also impacted hugely on the consumer laws. Many country laws have been amended to ensure greater online consumer protections. For purposes of offering greater protection to consumers, the EU issued a directive on consumer rights on June 13, 2014. The consumer law would be applicable to all EU member states with other countries expected to harmonize their consumer protection laws with standards set by the EU. The new consumer laws are expected to affect how e-commerce companies conduct businesses. One such new consumer laws is a directive pertaining to right to withdrawal. According to this new law, consumers are allowed to return goods after a fortnight instead of the previous 7 days (Statista 2014). Accordingly, this new law gives consumers an extension to their right to withdrawal. Previously, the laws granted consumers only up to a maximum of one week to return goods without providing reasons. However, following the new directives, consumers would have up to two weeks to cancel the sale and seek their money back. The new law also requires e-commerce companies to return the money to the consumers within two weeks after the customer had exercised their right to withdrawal. This reduces the duration of refund from the current 30 days to just a fortnight (E-Marketer 2014). Additionally, the new law prevents the seller from benefiting from the use of different payment methods by charging a fee above the cost incurred by him. Although these new consumer protection rules were passed to protect consumers in the EU countries, all other countries across the globe are expected amend their laws to harmonize with those of EU for purposes of conducting businesses with EU countries. Indeed, the move made by the EU was a move in the right direction since it addresses many issues that have been of great concern to online shoppers. This is because the new laws offer more protection to consumers than before. In conclusion, the revelations indicate the extent to which the data confidentiality and the protection of the privacy rights of consumers have become a big issue that require the attention of business regulators and lawmakers. This is because the failure to address the concerns raised by the online shoppers who depend largely on e-commerce to obtain goods and services might result in the death of e-commerce. In fact, the success of e-commerce largely depends on how well buyers are protected considering that buyers and sellers do not see each other in e-commerce transactions. In case shoppers avoid shopping online through e-commerce because of lack of protection accorded to them, many businesses will suffer significantly, particularly those that rely on e-commerce. Additionally, there would be a loss of more than $1.2 trillion sales revenue that is normally generated annually in e-commerce. Further, failure to address the concerns raised by consumers would result in serious legal implications, such Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons case whose ruling would impact significantly on the resale of products overseas. As such, it is important for the business regulators and lawmakers to come up with laws that would help address the concerns raised by online shoppers to help protect the growth and survival of the e-commerce industry. References Anderson, S. A 2008, “Privacy without the right to privacy.” The Monist, vol. 91, no. 1, pp. 81-107. Bowie, N. 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Schneider, G 2011, E-business commerce (9th edn.). Cengage Learning, London, UK. Statista 2014, E-commerce, viewed 5 February 2015, http://www.statista.com/markets/413/e-commerce/ Read More