Personal freedoms online payment solution also makes possible everything

E-business technologies have created new and different forms of legal and ethical considerations
for firms, regulators, and usersand these are not only to do with issues of truth or fairness, as the
erstwhile inventor of the World Wide Web suggests, above. There is an increasingly delicate
balance for firms to maintain between justifiable commercial activity and the rights of members of
the e-business community, and this within an evolving regulatory environment. There may be no
easy answers or trade-offs. Most e-business fee payment gateway technologies, observe are
'double-edged', in that 'the same capability can be used for socially beneficial and destructive ends'.
The only way these matters can be resolved, Wilson suggests, is through 'conflict and co-operation
among the contending elites' that negotiate across four distinct societal sectors. Business is only
one of these sectors: others include government, research and development, and civil society, and
managers need to be aware of the ways in which these issues are emerging being addressed.
Behaviors that may seen as being unjustifiable often take place on the edge of and often wholly
outside the control of the private sector, and shade into unscrupulous or illegal activities, which
range from the harmless but irritating to the criminal.
Internet users themselves remain concerned over a wide variety of issues connected with the
privacy, safety, and security of networked information. summarizes the results of a worldwide
survey by the International Telecommunications Union, in which 48 per cent of respondents felt
that communications networks were unsafe in some way, and the same proportion felt that the
resolution of security issues was important for safeguarding the future of the Internet. The figure
demonstrates the extensive range of fears, from a variety of causes, expressed by respondents. This
chapter focuses on three issues which have particular implications for business: those connected
with privacy, those surrounding intellectual property rights, and finally those involving fraud or
other criminal activities.
In terms of privacy, the same Internet capabilities which enhance personal freedoms online
payment solution also make possible what may be seen as increasingly intrusive behaviors when
undertaken by organizations. The consequences are differently perceived. Some types of activity by
firms, such as the use of cookies and tracking software, are regarded with increasing suspicion by
some users, but with increasing resignation by others.
The tensions between firms and their customers are paralleled at the level of the nation-state:
trends towards the removal of cross-border barriers for B2B (business-to-business) electronic
business have gone hand in hand with the emergence of censorship, state licensing, and
surveillance of online activity in some countries, as e-government has developed. For example,
Human Rights Watch has documented the differential approach of countries across the Middle East
and North Africa to the reporting of news of expression of opinion on blogs or websites, where
nevertheless: