Global Business (Privacy) - From week 8 Scarpbook

Does Internet Democratize the Consumer? Is privacy a concern?

Yes, internet does democratize the consumer from time to time. The emerged of Internet, not only improved the way people communicating, but also changed the tradition of the society that we used to have. Online-shopping is one forms of new tradition we are experiencing right now. An example that can best describe internet democratization would be the Ebay site. A consumer who is physically living in Ontario can buy a product from Hong Kong by just a “click”, the power of this “click” means, this consumer is finally ended up with the most satisfied product that she/he has been looking for while. (Information sharing over the internet) Secondly, buying products over the internet resulted saving in transportation from Ontario to Hong Kong. (Lead to more efficient) Consumers have comparative advantage when buying products over the internet, such as compare the qualities from product made in US and the product made in Hong Kong, and he/she can compare the prices as well, (This can reduce unnecessary waste, efficiently) or sometime comparing the seller’s credibility on selling products, consumers may take a look at, rather the seller provides insurance, free shipping, return policy and etc. (processing global communication). As a consumer, Internet gives such conveniences to us. It provides us with freedom to choose, to compare, and to buy. But problems still rose, even though everything seems going toward a best direction. People are now having problems in choosing between goods and services. Since there are so many firms are in the market, they created huge competitions between goods and services. Firms are trying to give out the “best” to their customers, in order to generate huge amount of profit. The processes of improving the goods and services, is also the processes of improving consumers’ tastes and expectations on goods and services. This democratic improvement may results in consumer disappointment. Go back to my ebay example, in order to do the online shopping, we all need to provide our personal information to the business holder first. Privacy protection therefore plays an important concern to all of us. News such as “personal information selling to others”, “credit card being used by a stranger oversea” and “credit card information being hacked by hackers”, news like these are not strange to all of us. Therefore we all need internet governance to protect all of us.