Chapter 10: Public Policy: From Legal Issues to Privacy doc

1 © Prentice Hall, 2000 Chapter 10 Public Policy: From Legal Issues to Privacy © Prentice Hall, 2000 2 Learning Objectives ❚ List and describe the major legal issues related to electronic commerce ❚ Understand the difficulties of protecting privacy and describe the measures taken by companies and individuals to protect it ❚ Describe the intellectual property issues in EC and the measures provided for its protection ❚ Describe some of the ethical issues in EC and the measures taken by organizations to improve ethics © Prentice Hall, 2000 3 Learning Objectives (cont.) ❚ Understand the conflict between Internet indecency and free speech, and the attempts to resolve the conflict ❚ Describe the issues involved in imposing sales tax on the Internet ❚ Discuss the controls over exporting encryption software and the issues of government policies ❚ Differentiate between contracts online and offline ❚ Describe the measures available to protect buyers and sellers on the Internet © Prentice Hall, 2000 4 Legal and Ethical Issues: an Overview ❚ Privacy ❚ Intellectual Property ❙ Difficult to protect since it is easy and inexpensive to copy and disseminate digitized information ❚ Free Speech ❙ Internet provides the largest opportunity for free speech ❚ Taxation ❙ Illegal to impose new sales taxes on Internet business at the present time ❚ Consumer Protection ❙ Many legal issues are related to electronic trade © Prentice Hall, 2000 5 Ethical Issues ❚ What is considered to be right and wrong? ❚ What is unethical is not necessarily illegal. ❚ Whether these actions are considered unethical depends on the organization, country, and the specific circumstances surrounding the scenarios. © Prentice Hall, 2000 6 Ethical Issues (cont.) ❚ Code of Ethics ❙ Many companies and professional organizations develop their own codes of ethics ❙ A collection of principles intended as a guide for its members ❙ A guide for members of a company or an association © Prentice Hall, 2000 7 ❙ Privacy ❘ Collection, storage, and dissemination of information about individuals ❙ Accuracy ❘ Authenticity, fidelity, and accuracy of information collected and processed ❙ Property ❘ Ownership and value of information and intellectual property ❙ Accessibility ❘ Right to access information and payment of fees to access it Organize IT Ethical Issues into a Framework © Prentice Hall, 2000 8 Protecting Privacy ❚ Privacy ❙ The right to be left alone and the right to be free of unreasonable personal intrusions ❚ Information Privacy ❙ The “claim of individuals, groups, or institutions to determine for themselves when, and to what extent, information about them is communicated to others” © Prentice Hall, 2000 9 Protecting Privacy (cont.) ❚ Two rules ❶ The right of privacy is not absolute. Privacy must be balanced against the needs of society. ❷ The public’s right to know is superior to the individual’s right of privacy. © Prentice Hall, 2000 10 How is Private Information Collected? ❙ Reading your newsgroups’ postings ❙ Finding you in the Internet Directory ❙ Making your browser record information about you ❙ Recording what your browsers say about you ❙ Reading your e-mail [...]... transparent to users Web sites can maintain information on a particular user across HTTP connections © Prentice Hall, 2000 13 Cook Cookies (cont.) Reasons for using cookies to personalize information to improve online sales/services to simplify tracking of popular links or demographics to keep sites fresh and relevant to the user’s interests to enable subscribers to log in without having to enter... controversies Whether top-level domain names (similar to com, org and gov) should be added The use of trademark names by companies for domain names that belong to other companies © Prentice Hall, 2000 25 Domain Names (cont.) Network Solutions Inc Contracted by the government to assign domain addresses Increase Top Level Names Idea is that an adult only top-level name will be created to prevent pornographic... password every visit to keep track of a customer’s search preferences personal profiles created are more accurate than self-registration Solutions to cookies users can delete cookie files stored in their computer use of anti-cookie software (e.g Cookie Cutter and Anonymous Cookie) © Prentice Hall, 2000 14 Privacy Protection 5 basic principles Notice/Awareness— Customers must be given... privacy policy © Prentice Hall, 2000 16 Legislation The Consumer Internet Privacy Act The Federal Internet Privacy Protection Act The Communications Privacy and Consumer Empowerment Act The Data Privacy Act © Prentice Hall, 2000 17 Electronic Surveillance - Monitoring Computer Users Tens of millions of computer users are monitored, many without their knowledge Employees have very limited protection... Information Administration to review the effect the bill would have on the free flow of information and makes recommendations for any changes two years after it is signed into law lets companies and common citizens circumvent anti-copying technology when necessary to make software or hardware compatible with other products, to conduct encryption research or to keep personal information from being spread via... Self-Registration Registration Questionnaires type in private information in order to receive a password to participate in a lottery, to receive information, or to play a game Uses of the Private Information collected for planning the business may be sold to a third party used in an inappropriate manner © Prentice Hall, 2000 11 From the Eighth User Survey by GVU (1988) 40% of all users have falsified... opposed to censorship in any form — except censorship of whatever they personally happen to find offensive.” What the boundaries are, and how they should be enforced Governments protective of their role in society, parents concerned about exposing their children to inappropriate Web pages and chat rooms, and federal agencies attempting to deal with illegal actions Citizen action groups desiring to protect... peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” © Prentice Hall, 2000 27 Defining Freedom of Speech (cont.) The united nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 addresses the right of freedom of expression “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive,... Copyright Liability Limitation Act seeks to protect Internet access providers from liability for direct and vicarious liability under specific circumstances where they have no control or knowledge of infringement © Prentice Hall, 2000 22 Legal Perspectives (cont.) Digital Millennium Copyright Act reasserts copyright in cyberspace makes illegal most attempts to defeat anti-copying technology requires... standards, sexual or excretory activities or organs” © Prentice Hall, 2000 30 Protecting Children 3 approaches (regarding the protection of children from inappropriate material on the Internet) No information should be held back and parents should be responsible for monitoring their own children The government is the only one who can truly protect children from this material To hold the Internet . Prentice Hall, 2000 Chapter 10 Public Policy: From Legal Issues to Privacy © Prentice Hall, 2000 2 Learning Objectives ❚ List and describe the major legal issues related to electronic commerce ❚ Understand. property ❙ Accessibility ❘ Right to access information and payment of fees to access it Organize IT Ethical Issues into a Framework © Prentice Hall, 2000 8 Protecting Privacy ❚ Privacy ❙ The right to be left alone. Protection ❙ Many legal issues are related to electronic trade © Prentice Hall, 2000 5 Ethical Issues ❚ What is considered to be right and wrong? ❚ What is unethical is not necessarily illegal. ❚ Whether