Review Of E-Commerce Issues: Consumers Perception On Security And Privacy

Web security has been a major issue of debate in the recent years. The lack of security is perceived as a major stumbling block for doing business online. Electronic cash payment systems are becoming more important than ever to facilitate online transactions and thus replacing traditional payment methods such as checks The prime objective of this paper is to determine the perception of consumers towards the security aspects of e-commerce technology. Specifically this paper examines the perception and awareness of security from the consumers standpoint especially in recent e-business processes that facilitate transfer of payment via electronic systems such as e-wallet, credit card and e-cash. The paper also examines the measures that can be taken so that the mindset of users can be changed to suit this new on-line culture

East Texas Council of Governments: GoBus Fare Collection

The purpose of this research paper is to provide the decision makers at the East Texas Council of Governments GoBus rural transit system with information as a basis for the future of how fares are collected, and to look for ways to resolve problems in our current fare collection method. The main issue involves accepting cash and checks because of the large service region GoBus Transit covers. GoBus depends on the bus operators to collect fares and make deposits, which becomes a major problem with accounting. As listed on the official website of SWARCO, an Austrian technology company, an “Automated Fare Collection (AFC) is a generic term for a ticketing system in public transport where the fare is no longer paid directly but via ticket vending machines, online services or other methods.”[i] The goal is to implement a new fare collection method by September 1, 2020 that eliminates monetary cash and check collection

The Benefits of Uniform Checking Account Disclosures: Testing Consumer Understanding

This brief summarizes the results of a Pew-commissioned experiment that tested the effect of uniform versus dissimilar disclosure formats on participants' ability to compare accounts. Half of the nationally representative sample of adults viewed summary boxes that were uniformly formatted and worded, and the other half received disclosure forms with differing layouts and language. The experiment found that uniform disclosures:Made it easier for participants to compare account terms and conditions.Increased participants' confidence in their understanding of practices and fees.Decreased the time users needed to identify account information.Increased participants' understanding of account fees and practices.These findings demonstrate the benefit of uniform disclosure for consumers and align with previous Pew research showing that 78 percent of checking account holders say that requiring banks to provide a one-page summary of key information about their accounts' terms, conditions, and fees would be an improvement. Accordingly, Pew urges the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to mandate clear, concise, and uniform disclosures for checking accounts -- as it has proposed for general purpose reloadable prepaid cards

A multi-agent architecture for electronic payment

The Internet has brought about innumerable changes to the way enterprises do business. An essential problem to be solved before the widespread commercial use of the Internet is to provide a trustworthy solution for electronic payment. We propose a multi-agent mediated electronic payment architecture in this paper. It is aimed at providing an agent-based approach to accommodate multiple e-payment schemes. Through a layered design of the payment structure and a well-defined uniform payment interface, the architecture shows good scalability. When a new e-payment scheme or implementation is available, it can be plugged into the framework easily. In addition, we construct a framework allowing multiple agents to work cooperatively to realize automation of electronic payment. A prototype has been built to illustrate the functionality of this design. Finally we discuss the security issues

Clicking with dollars : how consumers can pay for purchases from E-tailers

The Internet is often referred to as the world’s largest mall. About half of all adults in the United States have made a purchase online. Worldwide, online shopping is considerably greater—and cybershopping is expected to continue to grow as more households become connected to the Internet and as improvements in mobile telecommunication technology allow wireless Internet access anywhere and anytime.> A byproduct of the dramatic increase in online shopping has been a heightened demand for convenient and secure online payment methods. Consumers make almost all their online purchases with credit cards. But study after study continues to identify concerns about the safety of providing credit-card numbers and personal information online as the biggest barrier to cybershopping. Without further improvements in consumers’ online payment options, e-tailing might not realize its full potential.> Schreft surveys and assesses what is new about the options consumers have to make payments at Internet retailers. She discusses how making payments in cyberspace differs from making payments in the bricks-and-mortar world and describes the use of traditional payment methods for cybershopping. She also examines the new means of payment designed especially for use online.Electronic commerce ; Payment systems

Felon Seeks Firearm, No Strings Attached: How Dangerous People Evade Background Checks and Buy Illegal Guns Online

The online marketplace for guns is vast -- and growing. Each year, millions of people connect through online ads to buy and sell firearms. And because many of the transactions are conducted by so-called 'private sellers' who are not required by federal law to conduct background checks, guns routinely change hands with no questions asked. In the digital age, convicted felons, domestic abusers and other dangerous people who are legally barred from buying guns can do so online with little more than a phone number or email address. And they do. Countless tragedies have demonstrated that determined criminals are exploiting this 'private sale loophole' to acquire guns online and murder innocent peopleThe National Rifle Association, which once supported the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), has recently opposed efforts to close this growing loophole. One argument often recurs: criminals won't submit to background checks.This report demonstrates that their claim is both false and true. Criminals undeniably do submit to background checks: in 2010 alone, federal and state checks blocked more than 150,000 gun sales to prohibited buyers. But criminals also undeniably avoid background checks -- by exploiting the private sale loophole. Indeed, one measure of NICS's success is that it appears to have forced a growing number of criminals to seek out private sellers since the system was established in 1998

After the hype: e-commerce payments grow up

On June 18, 2003, the Payment Cards Center of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia and the Electronic Commerce Payments Council (eCPC) of the Electronic Funds Transfer Association co-hosted a workshop forum to explore areas of mutual interest related to the proliferation of e-commerce payments. This was the second event jointly sponsored by the groups. ; The first forum, “The Future of e-Commerce Payments,” which was held in June 2002, focused on the possibilities ahead, as various electronic payment channels displace paper checks as a primary payment form. The more recent forum, “After the Hype: e-Commerce Payments Grow Up,” continued the dialog, emphasizing recent economic and marketplace realities that impact ecommerce payments innovation, acceptance, and maturation. ; Participants and speakers included Federal Reserve staff and industry leaders.Electronic commerce

Monetary Perspective On Underground Economic Activity In The United States

There are widespread reports of a growing underground, or unobserved, economy in the United States and in other countries. The unobserved economy seems to develop principally from efforts to evade taxes and government regulation. Although no single definition of such activity has been universally accepted, the term generally refers to activity – whether legal or illegal – generating income that either is underreported or not reported at all (see Chapter 1 in this volume). Some authors narrow the definition to cover income produced in legal activity that is not set down in the recorded national income statistics. Recent discussion of underground economic activity was stimulated by publication of two estimates, one by Gutmann (1977) and the other by Feige (1979), of the size of the underground economy in the United States; these estimates were derived from aggregate monetary statistics. In the ensuing years, numerous other estimates have been made of the underground economy in the United States and in other countries. The magnitude of some of these estimates has prompted congressional hearings and various government studies. In 1979, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS, 1979) estimated that, for 1976, individuals failed to report between $75 billion and$100 billion in income from legal sources and another $25 billion to$35 billion from three types of illegal activity – drugs, gambling, and prostitution. In a more recent study, the IRS estimated that unreported income from legal sources rose from $93.9 billion in 1973 to$249.7 billion in 1981 whereas unreported income from these same three illegal activities rose from $9.3 billion to$34 billion (IRS, 1983)