Ethical Issues Related to eCommerce

Electronic Commerce Ethical Issues
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Electronic Commerce Ethical Issues
In the digital era, online businesses have become ubiquitous. Many people prefer to buy goods and services in the comfort of their homes since it saves time and money. Moreover, the Internet has led to a culture where individuals are busy since they can work from home as long as they are connected to the web. However, online businesses are prone to ethical issues, which is why making policy decisions should be done carefully to avoid creating a bad image of a company on the Internet or damaging the firm's reputation. In particular, ethics go beyond what is considered wrong or right since it entails the values that businesses hold. Electronic commerce refers to the data transmission or selling and purchasing of products and services over the web. The paper focuses on ethical problems related to electronic commerce, crucial considerations that businesses should adhere to, and why.
Ethical issues create conflict with people’s moral principles and tarnish the reputation of a company. For example, in 1999, Amazon.com accepted payments from publishers of up to $10,000 so that it can give positive editorial reviews and include the books in the list of most recommended (Schneider, 2017). Although the company was doing nothing illegal since such cooperative advertising programs are acceptable, Amazon.com had to end that practice since it led to ethical problems for its customers. The firm promised to provide unconditional refunds to clients who had purchased promoted books. Specifically, there are multiple ethical issues related to electronic commerce, including online piracy, the sale of illegal firearms, email spamming, the usage of customers' information shared on the Internet, and privacy concerns among others.
Online piracy entails unauthorized parties claiming ownership of intellectual property. For example, this can happen when a company sells books using its name without recognizing the authors and publishers. In addition, some online businesses might sell products or offer services using the name of highly reputable companies to persuade customers that the commodities are of the highest quality. EBay had to stop auctioning firearms since the practice portrayed a bad image of the company to its customers. The firm started screening illegal products and copyright-infringing items to avoid damaging its reputation (Schneider, 2017). Online businesses are expected to safeguard their clients’ information to avoid spamming. When cyber-attackers access a company’s customers’ database, they might send phishing emails with malware by impersonating themselves using the firm&rs...