On E-Commerce Ethics

by Percy Tabor

Question:

E-Commerce security is plagued with ethical issues on responsibility. If fraud occurs, whose fault is it? Is it the business's fault for not securing their information correctly? Is it the consumer's fault for assuming that the technology used is secure? Is it the criminal's fault for stealing information, even if the information was being sent in the clear? Or is it a combination of the three?

My Answer:

There may be some perspective by which we can analyze this kind of problem.

A merchant (or the system administrator), trying to scam his/her costumers by disguising himself/herself as a legitimate online store. Seems it’s his fault. The merchant may be the criminal.

On the other hand, here comes an online buyer trying to acquire some items in an online store. This buyer made some fraudulent orders, or played around the system by filling out the form with inconsistent information especially with his/her credit card. Without careful analysis by the online store owner, the fraudulent orders will be shipped without getting any payment for it. Seems it’s his fault. The consumer may be the criminal.

Now there’s an imperfect online store system. Glitches and bug everywhere. There, neither good deal nor good transaction are being done. Both the merchant and the buyer complain of something. They are both victims of a defective system. Seems it’s the machine’s fault. The machine may be the criminal.

Now let’s identify the problem in this problem.

There are a lot of definitions for ethics out there. But the key word for most would be “human conduct”. No machine or an act of a machine should be questioned as far as ethics or morality is concerned. There is no such thing as machine ethics, technology ethics, or system ethics. Machines deciding on what is right and wrong is a Hollywood fiction. The human behind the machine is the real thing, and must be the main focus of ethics – in identifying who made lapses in judgment.

There we remove the system in the picture. It is now only between the two – the merchant (who may be the criminal) and the consumer (who may also be the criminal).

Whatever the situation may be in an online business, it always boils down to the merchant. It is him/her who put up the store, chose the system and technology to run it, the way the items will be delivered, and the way the payment will be collected. Be him/her (the merchant) as the criminal, or as the victim, it is his/her fault. It is his/her responsibility. It is the merchant who should learn the lesson on how to do e-commerce the next time around. The merchant is the human behind the scene, and behind the machine.