Internet Privacy
One of the most important advances in the rapidly developing world of electronic commerce is the ability of companies to develop personalized relationships with their customers. Personalization empowers companies to better understand their customers' wants and desires and improve customer service by tailoring offerings to the unique needs of individuals . At the same time, this has become a subject of hot controversy because the technology involves the extensive collection and use of personal data. Many, if not most, online shoppers and surfers are not aware of the extent of how much and what kind of info can be gathered about a person, even someone who is just visiting and not shopping or signing up for anything. Through the use of the "cookie" technology, a person's movement through the Web can be tracked to provide information. Using cookies a website assigns each individual a unique identifier (but not the actual identity), so that the he may be recognized in subsequent visits to the site. On each return visit, the site can call up user-specific information, which could include the consumer's preferences or interests, as indicated by documents the consumer accessed in prior visits or items the consumer clicked on while in
Available: http://www.pandab.org/pabsurve.htm [2000, March 30]. The study seems to back the e-commerce firms who are watching online behavior to provide customized shopping experiences, and not privacy advocates who say that this practice is an invasion of privacy. It is the purpose for gathering the information, it would seem, that is the key to drawing the line between acceptable personalization and invasion of privacy. University of Wisconsin-Madison Writing Center (September 1998). APA Style: Citing Electronic Resources. Writer's Handbook. [On-line]. Available: http://www.wisc.edu/writing/handbook/elecapa.html [2000, March 27]. The report-the result of a three-year study of 1,400 websites targeted at consumers-also censured the e-commerce industry for not adequately protecting private information, stating that "the vast majority of online businesses have yet to adopt even the most fundamental fair information practice...." It also criticized the industry's voluntary guidelines, stating that "with limited exception, contain none of the enforcement mechanisms needed for an effective self-regulatory regime."4 Only 924 of the 1,400 websites surveyed was found to have privacy policies. 87 percent of these notified customers that they collect information, and 77 percent offered customers refusal rights. However, only 40 percent gave customers access to their information; 46 percent promised security; and 49 percent provided contact information.
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1105
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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