The Internet Privacy Threat And Its Impact To The Consumer

Name Course Instructor Date The Internet Privacy Threat and its Impact to the Consumer Behavior Across the world, the internet has been regarded as one of the best inventions of the human race. The internet has played great role in enhancing and connecting people from different parts of the world to exchange ideas and goods without geographical limitations. One of the most beneficiaries of the internet is commercial businesses that have been given a wider and open market for them to sell their products and services to meet the needs of the global market. Greater business opportunities have been opened up as people from different parts of the world can order for goods and services and have them delivered to them. Other sectors that have embraced the eCommerce concept include the banking industry where clients can access different banking services online at any time and in any location as long as they have their online accounts activated by their parent company. Despite the economic growth that has been brought about by the successes of the eCommerce, there are key potential challenges of cyber security that threaten the privacy of online traders which I believe have a great potential of affecting online consumer behavior. The internet privacy threat has led to the mistrust between consumers and the sellers. There have been several cases that have been reported about the misuse and mishandling of private client information which has been exposed to the wrong people who use it for other reasons other than the ones that it was intended for. One of the most recent cases reported is the one of Facebook. The company has been accused of using client’s information and providing it to third parties who used the information to tailor messages for political campaigns in favor of specific presidential candidates in different countries across the world including USA. There was uproar on the social media when these claims came out and several Facebook users withdrew from the Facebook services. The main reason for this is because the Facebook users found it difficult to trust Facebook with its privacy. This was not only a malpractice, but also a manifestation of how companies misuse the information given to them by their clients. It leads to the lack of trust between the consumers and the sellers. Others choose the old way of doing business where they walk into buildings for the services that they nee...