ims 6485: social issues on the web 1 dr. lawrence west, mis dept., university of central florida...

IMS 6485: Social Issues On the Web

1Dr. Lawrence West, MIS Dept., University of Central [email protected]

Topics

• Governments• Ethics• Privacy• Intellectual Property Rights• Internet Governance• Taxes• Vice• Legal Issues• International / Cultural Issues



Governments as Economic Institutions

• Why do we have governments?– Important for today's class– Essential to next week's class



Social Issues in the Value Chain?

TRANS-PORTATIONCOMPANY

BROKER

INFORMATION FLOWS(SELLERS TO BUYERS)

FLOW OF GOODS

ADVERTISING .

INVOICE .

ORDER INFORMATION .

INFORMATION FLOWS(BUYERS TO SELLERS)

REQUEST INFORMATION .

PLACE ORDER .

MAKE PAYMENTS .

Animal

Vegetable

Mineral

INVENTORY

INVENTORY

INVENTORY

FACTORY WHOLE-SALER

INTERMEDIATE

GOODS

WHOLE-SALER RETAILER

Where do these topics fall?

Overlay the roles of:1.Individuals2.Firms3.Governments



Important Topics

• Which of the issues in this chapter require specific policy decisions from a company?

• Which of the issues are the most likely to get a company in trouble inadvertently?

• Which of the issues could get you into the biggest trouble inadvertently?

• Who are John Lefebvre and Steve Lawrence?



Ethics and Ethical Dilemmas

• What system or rules of ethics should guide human behavior?– Are there cultural differences on some issues?– Are there differences among individuals?

• Are there circumstantially determined ethics?• Can you think of examples where the fact that a

transaction occurs on the Internet:– Changes the ethical context in which it occurs?– Is treated as if the ethical context has changed?



Ethics (cont.)

• What are the potential economic consequences of ethical and unethical behavior?

• Should an organization have an ethical code?• How does the adoption of ethical behavior in

organizations differ from its adoption by individuals?• What management challenges does attempting to

achieve corporate ethical behavior present?• See the Candidate Ethical Principles list.



Privacy

• What are the contending motivations for maintaining and violating privacy?

• Argue from the private individual buyer's and corporate seller's point of view what the ideal levels of privacy would be surrounding a business transaction.– Do not consider ethical issues, just what would most

benefit each party in the transaction– How does each parties 'most desired state' affect the

other party?– What practical concessions do people make in

departure from their idealized goal?



Privacy (cont.)

• The Internet Marketing chapter presented several technologies for tracking customer and visitor actions– Third party cookies– Transaction data– Click-stream tracking– Spyware– Adware

• What is the goal of these technologies?• What uses of the information are acceptable or not?

– Who decides?



Privacy (cont.)

• What right to privacy do you have in a small town?– In a big city?– On campus?– On the Internet?

• What are the social, business, and personal implications of the credit reporting systems?



Privacy (cont.)

• Are you offended by advertisements presented to you that match your interests?

• Would you be offended if UCF sold your name, address, and the fact that you are a student to commercial organizations?

• 55% of consumers disapproved of search sites keeping track of user searches– Why do you think this is?– How many of you think a search site will tell your

mother what you have been up to?



Privacy (cont.)

• Extensive government involvement in privacy protection (Table 8.4)– Why do you think this is?

• Have there been cases of government involvement in privacy violation?– When is it a 'government' action?– When is it a 'personal' action by a government

employee?• Are there national differences between privacy laws?

– What are the implications?



Privacy (cont.)

• What decisions should companies make with regard to privacy?

• Should you elect to participate with one of the Seal-granting trust certification organizations?– Justify your answer

• How much should you spend to protect against hacking or other unauthorized access?

• Exercise: Develop a privacy policy for your company• Exercise: Go to some web sites mentioned as having

Chief Privacy Officers and see whether this fact is publicized



Intellectual Property Rights

• There are many instances of individuals violating intellectual property rights

• What examples of corporate violations can you think of?– Deliberate?– Inadvertent?

• Three big problems with intellectual property– Public good nature of the property– Difficult to detect– Difficult to enforce



Intellectual Property (cont.)

• See Digital Millennium Copyright Act table– What are the enforcement mechanisms domestically?– Internationally?– What constitutes a library?– How wide can 'internal' be in geographically dispersed

organizations?• If a business process can be patented what prevents you

from independently and unknowingly developing the same process?




• Trademarks and copyrights– Exercise: Put a Disney corporation image on a

commercial web site, be sure the file name includes the image name, and see how long it takes to get a call from Disney

– You have to keep an eye on your developers– Be sure to check the permissions on any images you

intend to use on the web




• Some interesting new phenomenon– Cybersquatting– Cyperpiracy– Metatagging– Keywords– Linking– Framing



Internet Governance

• Can the Internet be governed?– Is shutting down the same as governing?– Does the U.S. 'own' the Internet?– What is the practical ability of any country to affect the

actions of sites in other jurisdictions?



Internet Governance (cont.)

• Should your company have a policy on employee use of the Internet– While at work– On company computers away from work?

• What should the policy be?



Taxes

• Taxes have been one of the most difficult and contentious issues in eCommerce– When are taxes owed?– Who is responsible for paying them?– Who should receive them?– What is taxable

• You must understand nexus



Vice on the Internet

• Vice in many forms is a huge business– Viva Las Vegas

• It is no surprise that vice has moved onto the Internet• Is this a line of business your company wants to

pursue?– Direct provision?– Financial transactions– Support services

• What are the international implications of vice?



Legal Issues

• The Reach of Law– Governments exercise jurisdiction within a geographic

boundary– Jurisdiction applies to people and property inside that

boundary– Governments do not exercise jurisdiction over citizens

and assets located in another government's jurisdiction (unless you invade the country)



Legal Issues

• The Reach of Law (cont.)– Jurisdiction is automatically applied to residents of a

state– Jurisdiction can be applied through other means

• Forum Selection Clause of a contract in which the parties agree to submit to a particular jurisdiction in the event of a dispute

• Long-Arm Statutes enacted by states give them jurisdiction over persons who transact business in the state

– Application of these rules is unclear in e-Commerce



Legal Issues

• The Reach of Law (cont.)– International jurisdiction is governed by treaty unless

the parties are physically located in the country seeking to exercise jurisdiction

– Assets located in foreign countries can be attached to satisfy local judgments

– U.S. courts will enforce foreign judgments if personal jurisdiction can be established and if treaty provisions provide for support



Legal Issues

• The Reach of Law (cont.)– Companies must be aware of their exposure to foreign

legal processes– Companies must be aware of the actions that can be

considered actionable in the countries where they are exposed

– Companies must take steps to limit the ability of citizens of a country to use e-Commerce facilities if such use would be actionable and when the company is exposed in that country



International Issues

• Cultural Issues– You must travel the world before you will realize how

easy it is to offend someone with behavior that is perfectly polite or innocent where you come from

– There are tons of great stories about business ventures that crashed on the rocks of cultural misunderstanding

– It is easy to incorporate offensive or adverse content into a web page that is viewed by visitors from another culture

ims 6485: social issues on the web 1 dr. lawrence west, mis dept., university of central florida...

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