Pop Ups, Cookies, Spam

Pop-Ups, Cookies, and Spam: Toward a Deeper Analysis of the Ethical Significance of Internet
Marketing Practices
Author(s): Daniel E. Palmer
Source: Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 58, No. 1/3, Promoting Business Ethics (Apr. - May,
2005), pp. 271-280
Published by: Springer
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Journal
of Business Ethics
(2005)
58: 271-280
DOI 10.1007/sl0551-005-1421-8
?
Springer
2005
Pop-Ups,
Cookies,
and
Spam:
Toward
a
Deeper Analysis
of the Ethical
Significance
of Internet
Marketing
Practices Daniel E. Palmer
ABSTRACT. Wh?e e-commerce has
grown rapidly
in
recent
years,
some of the
practices
associated with certain
aspects
of
marketing
on the
Internet,
such as
pop-ups,
cookies,
and
spam,
have raised concerns on the
part
of
Internet users. In this
paper
I examine the nature of these
practices
and what I take to be the
underlying
source of
this concern. I
argue
that the ethical issues
surrounding
these Internet
marketing techniques
move us
beyond
the
traditional treatment of the ethics of
marketing
and
advertising
found in discussions of business ethics
previ
ously.
Rather,
I show that the
questions they
raise ulti
mately
turn
upon questions
of
technique
and the
ways
in
which
technologies
can transform the fundamental means
by
which
relationships
are estabUshed and maintained
within a social environment. I then
argue
that the tech
niques
of e-commerce are indeed
transforming
the means
by
which businesses relate to
consumers, and that this
transformation is
affecting
the
applicab?ity
of our
previ
ous
ways
of
demarcating
the
imperatives determining
the
limits of
accessib?ity
between consumers and businesses.
Properly addressing
the ethical status of the
techniques
of
e-marketing
as such
necessarily
moves us to consider the
changes
that Internet commerce are
having upon
the
norms that
govern
individuals in their relations with
others.
KEY WORDS:
Pop-ups,
cookies, spam,
e-commerce,
marketing
ethics,
privacy, property, autonomy
Introduction
While the Internet was
originally developed
for
governmental
and educational
purposes,
its com
mercial
potential
was
quickly
realized and as a result
Internet commerce has
grown
at
exponential
rates in
recent
years.1 By
2002,
67 million Americans were
buying products
on-line,
and Internet sales of all
kinds have
skyrocketed
in recent
years (Stead
and
Gilbert, 2001). Perhaps
the most
significant changes
that e-commerce has
brought
to the business world
concern the means
technologies
available on the
Internet
give
marketers to
identify
and reach
potential
consumers. While the mutual benefits
e-commerce
provides
consumers and sellers
explains
the continued
growth
of Internet
business,
some of
the
techniques
used in
marketing
and
advertising
on
the
Internet,
such as
spamming, pop-ups,
and
cookies,
have been received less than
enthusiastically
by
the
general pubhc (Hafner, 2003).
Recent efforts
at both the federal and state levels to enact
legislation
regulating spam e-mailing testify
to the
general
sense
of concern that
many people
have in
regards
to such
cyber marketing techniques (Swartz, 2003).
How
ever, while a
clear sense of dissatisfaction can be
garnered
within the
public
discussion
surrounding
e-commerce related
issues,
there is less
clarity
as to
the
deeper underlying
issues involved with concern
over these
practices.
Indeed,
by
and
large,
those
responding
to ethical issues involved in e-commerce
have tended to view the issues in a
piecemeal
fashion
without
exploring
the
underlying philosophical
is
sues involved in the transformation of commerce
brought
about
by
Internet
technologies.
In this
Daniel E. Palmer is an Assistant
Professor
in the
Department of
Philosophy
at Kent State
University,
Trumbull
Campus.
His
previous scholarly publications
include articles on issues in
ethical
theory, aesthetics,
and business ethics. His current
research interests in business ethics
focus
on issues
concerning
the
organizational
and social
foundations of
business
practices.
272 Daniel E. Palmer
paper
I wiU
argue precisely
for the need for such a
deeper ph?osophical analysis
if we are
properly
to
come to terms with the ethical ramifications of the
technologies
of e-commerce and the
implications
they
have for our
understanding
of the
underlying
norms that
govern
business
relationships. My
aim is
threefold.
One,
I wish to show that the
techniques
of internet
marketing
raise ethical
questions
that
go
beyond
the standard concerns raised in relation to
these
topics
in discussions of
marketing
in business
ethics
previously,
and that we cannot thus
simply
apply
our
previous analyses
of these issues to the
distinctive world of e-commerce.
Two,
to
argue
that
we need to think about the issues raised
by
e-commerce
primarily
in terms of
questions
of
technological
transformation.
Addressing
issues of
e-commerce
primarily
in terms of the use of tech
nology,
I
argue,
more
fi?ly
reveals what is at the
heart of the matter with our concern with
many
of
the
specific practices
involved.
And, third,
I wish to
explore
how the transformations that Internet
technologies
are
bringing
about in e-commerce have
wide
implications
for
many
of the basic
concepts
that
have
governed
moral and
legal
discussions of rela
tionships
between consumers and businesses in the
past.
Here,
I look at some
specific ways
in which
traditional
concepts
are
being
affected
by
this trans
formation and how
we
might begin
to
respond
to
the ethical
implications
of these
changes
in a
way
that is sensitive to the
philosophical chaUenges
in
volved.
Marketing
on the web: The
techniques
of
e-commerce
Until
recently,
most discussions of normative issues
in
marketing
and
advertising
ethics have concen
trated
upon
a few narrow
topics.
For the most
part,
the ethical issues associated with
marketing
centered
on two main issues:
deceptive
and/or
manipulative
advertising
and the
marketing
of harmful or non
beneficial
products.
An informal
survey
of several of
the
major
textbooks available on business ethics
confirms this view. In
regards
to the first
category,
every
text
surveyed
carried articles and case studies
dealing
with
deception
in
advertising. Topics
dis
cussed in this
regard typicaUy
included such
topics
as
puffery, exaggeration,
concealment of
information,
and
psychological manipulation
in
advertising.
Likewise,
aU of the textbooks dealt with issues
involving
the
marketing
of harmful or non-benefi
cial
products,
such as
tobacco, alcohol,
fast
food,
or
nutritional
supplements.
Of
course, the two issues
mentioned above are in
practice
often intertwined as
weU,
since the most
questionable advertising
in
terms of its
deceptive
nature is often used to market
products
of the most
questionable
benefit to the
consumer.
However,
I would
argue
that there is a
deeper conceptual
link between these two
categories
as weU: for in each case the
underlying
ethical
concern turns
upon
issues
involving
the nature of the
product
or service
being
marketed. In the first case,
because it is felt that the
advertising
undermines the
rational
ability
of a consumer to evaluate the nature
of that
product
or service and in the second case
because of the
very
nature of the
product
or service
being
marketed itself. As the issue
reaUy
turns in
both of these instances
upon
the
product
or the
way
in which the
product
is
presented
to the consumer in
the
marketing campaign
in
question,
I wiU term
ethical
questions
of these nature ethical
questions
of
product.
And,
by
and
large,
traditional discussions of
marketing
in business ethics have been devoted to
such ethical
questions
of
product.
Certainly
aU of these same
questions
of
product
in
regards
to the ethics of
marking
can be
applied
to
many
of the
marketing practices
that one finds on
the Internet.
Indeed, if,
for
instance,
one
actuaUy
reads the
typical spam
she receives on a
daily
basis,
she wiU find no
shortage
of
paradigm
cases for such
discussions. Advertisements for
putative
cures for
baldness,
impotence, obesity,
and other
ailments,
real or
imagined,
vie in a
dizzying array
with offers
for
credit,
business
opportunities,
sexual material and
other
goods
and services of dubious worth. As
such,
I
certainly
do not
deny
that the traditional ethical
issues raised
surrounding marketing
and
advertising
retain their
importance
in the environment of
e
commerce.
Nonetheless,
I want to
argue
that these
matters do not exhaust the
general
sense of concern
that is
commonly
raised in
regards
to the
marketing
practices
involved in e-commerce.
Before
moving directly
to this
question,
let me
briefly
review three of the
practices
of Internet
marketing
that I have in mind first.
My
choice of
these three should not
suggest
that I take them to be
Ethical
Significance of
Internet
Marketing
273
either exhaustive
of,
or even
necessarily
the most
important
of,
the sorts of
techniques
that are in
volved in e-commerce.
They simply
are some of the
more common ones with which most Internet users
are
familiar,
and each of them is also iUustrative of
the
deeper
issues that I think Internet
technologies
used in e-commerce raise.
First,
there is
spam,
those
ubiquitous messages
that
fiU our inboxes in a
seemingly
never
ending
stream.
While it turns out that
defining spam
is more diffi
cult than it
might appear
at first
glance,
for the
purposes
of this discussion it is
enough
to
stipulate
that
spamming
in the context of
marketing
involves
the
sending
of unsohcited e-mail
advertisements,
usuaUy repeatedly,
to
very large
lists of e-mail ad
dresses.
Often,
though arguably
not
necessarily,
spamming campaigns
involve an additiond feature:
the source of the e-mail is difficult to trace and the
consumer is not able to remove themselves from the
e-mail lists used to
generate
the
spam. Indeed,
often
the
attempt by
a consumer to
opt
out of
receiving
further e-mail is used
by
the sender as a
way
of
confirming
the
legitimacy
of the consumer's com
puter
address and results in the
person receiving
more
spam
in the
future,
not less
(Hafner, 2003).
Wh?e estimates
vary,
at least 2 trillion
spam
mes
sages
are sent to American e-mail addresses on a
yearly
basis and the amount of
spam
sent has in
creased
by
double
digits
on a
yearly
basis over the last
few
years (Swartz, 2003).
For some time now,
spam
messages
have been far more
prevalent
for most users
on their e-mail accounts than
legitimate
e-mail
messages, despite
the
significant
efforts of Internet
service
providers
to block such
messages (Hafner,
2003).
While
spamming
involves
sending
unsolicited
messages
to e-mail
users, the use of
pop-ups
can be
thought
of as a
different kind of unsolicited adver
tising. Pop-ups
are
separate
windows that automat
icaUy appear
on a user's browser when he or
she
accesses a web site. The most common use of
pop
ups
is to advertise some
product
or service to the
person viewing
a web
site,
and often
they provide
hyper-Hnks
for the consumer that w?l lead them to
further windows if
pursued.
As
technology
advances,
pop-ups
have become more
sophisticated,
with
some
including
video
images
and/or audio tracks.
Other
pop-ups
wiU move about a
person's
browser
screen rather than
occupy
a
stationary position.
While most
pop-up
windows are
easy
to
close,
it is
somewhat more difficult on others to find the close
function. At the worst
extreme,
there are those
nefarious
pop-ups
that in essence take control of the
normal functions on one's
browser,
so that the at
tempt
to close them or use the back function on
one's browser screen instead takes the viewer to
new,
and
usuaUy
undesired, windows,
so that the
user becomes "locked" into
viewing
a series of new
windows from which there is no obvious
escape
(Newman, 2001).
At
times,
the
only way
to
get
out
of the
loop
started
by attempting
to close these kinds
of
pop-ups
is to shut the
computer being
used down
altogether.
Cookies are smaU files
placed
on a user's com
puter by
a third
party entity
when that
person
is
browsing
web sites on the Internet. Such cookies
record various information about the user that is later
retrieved
by
the
computer
that
placed
them on the
user's site. While there are
lots of uses for cookies
and a number of
types
of information that
they
can
be used to
retrieve,
they
are
commonly
used in e
commerce to store database
information,
customize
page settings,
or
otherwise make a site
unique
to a
specific
user.
Doing
so
gives companies,
in the
words of one Internet business
site,
"the
ability
to
personalize
information
(like
on
My
Yahoo or Ex
cite),
or to
help
with on-line sales/services
(like
on
Amazon Books or
Microsoft),
or
simply
for the
purposes
of
tracking popular
links or
demographics
(like DoubleCUck) (Tenrox, 2003)".
Cookies are
also sometimes
placed by
third
parties
to coUect
information about a users'
preferences
or
browsing
habits. This
information,
in
turn,
can be distributed
widely
and
easily
on the Internet to other
companies
who can in turn use it to market other
goods
and
services to these consumers
(Stead
and
Gilbert,
2001).
The basic
principle
behind the use of cookies
involves the
ability
of businesses
(or
other
entities)
to
place
files or
programs
on consumers'
computers
to
coUect data about those consumers in
ways
that are
often
opaque
to the user and/or difficult for them to
control. This same
principle
has led to a number of
other Internet
technologies
used
by
businesses that
have caused even more concern on the
part
of
consumers. In this
regard,
Colin Bennett
(2001)
even notes that "cookie
technology might
be the
tracking
device of the
past (p. 202)".
Web
Bugs,
for
instance,
are
very
small
graphics
embedded in Web
pages
or e-mails
designed
to monitor and collect
information on who is
reading
the
pages
or e-mail in
question. Again,
these
bugs
allow
companies
to
compile
information about consumer behavior on
line and are often
placed
on web sites
by
third
parties
(Bennett, 2001).
In the same
regard, many
of the
techniques
involved in such
practices
as data
mining
on the Internet involve similar uses of
technology
to
monitor and
gather
data
concerning
consumer
behavior in
ways
that consumers are either unaware
of or unable to avoid when
they engage
in Internet
use
(Tavani, 2000).
Having briefly
viewed the nature of some of the
marketing practices
that have elicited concern from
Internet
users,
we can now see that
by
and
large
the
ethical issues
surrounding
these
practices
cannot be
readily
viewed in terms of the common ethical
topics
that discussions of
marketing
ethics have fo
cused
upon
in the
past.
For
instance,
for
many
of us
who
rarely
do more than
glance
at the
spam
e-mail
that we
receive,
our
primary
concern is not
simply
that the
appeals
contained in such
messages
are
deceptive
in nature
(though surely many
of them
are),
or that the
products
or services
they
advertise
are worthless or harmful
(though, again, surely
a
large majority
of them
are).
Similar remarks could be
made about the use of
pop-ups.
In the case of
cookies and related information
gathering
technol
ogies
this
point
can
perhaps
be made even more
clearly,
since here we are often unaware of the
very
existence of the
practice
involved and thus of the
companies
and kinds of
marketing
connected with
them. In each case
then,
our sense of concern with
these
practices
is not derived
primarily
from ethical
questions
of
product,
but from
elsewhere,
even if we
cannot
always
articulate the nature of the source of
this ethical concern. But
many people
do at least
sense that there
might
be ethical
problems
associated
with
many
of these
practices,
even if
they
cannot
quite put
their
finger
on what the issues
really
are.
Any attempt
to deal with the ethical issues raised
by
e-commerce thus must involve more than a
simple
apphcation
of the
questions
of
product
to the con
text of the Internet.
Rather,
if we are to
fully
exphcate
the ethical issues
surrounding
e-commerce,
we must
attempt
to
unpack
the source and
signifi
cance of this
underlying
sense of
worry
about the
implications
of the kinds of business
practices
it often
involves. In the
foUowing
sections,
I wiU
attempt
to
do
just
this,
displaying
what I beUeve is the
philo
sophical
source of our concern with the
practices
involved in e-commerce and
disclosing
more
clearly
the
deeper
ethical
questions engendered by
the
technologies
of e-commerce.
Questions
of
technique
and the transformation
of the world of commerce
So far I have
argued
that if the
practices
of e-com
merce
marketing
raise ethical
questions
for our
consideration,
then these ethical issues must take us
beyond
those discussed in the context of
marketing
in the
past.
While not
denying
that e-commerce
does involve those
issues,
what I have termed ethical
questions
of
product,
I have also
suggested
that our
real sense of unease with some of the
practices
in
volved in e-commerce
marketing
raise consider
ations of
a
different sort.
Again,
if the
problem
with
spam advertising
was
merely
that the information it
contained was
deceptive
or that the
products
and
services advertised
non-beneficial,
then the
outcry
over
spam
would
hardly
be as
widespread
as it is for
the
simple
reason that most of us
pay very
Uttle
attention to the information contained in
spam
advertisements
anyway. Likewise,
if the use of
pop-ups
and cookies in
marketing products
are
moraUy problematic,
it can
hardly
be because of the
nature of the
products they
advertise or the infor
mation about the
products they provide,
since the
techniques
involved are neutral as
regards
to such
issues.
So,
if these
practices pose
a
particular prob
lem,
it must be one that moves us
beyond questions
of
product.
Our
inquiry
needs as such to
change
to
reflect the nature of the
practices
involved in e
commerce themselves.
To
properly
orient our
philosophical
focus,
we
should first consider that if the ethical
questions
in
volved in these
practices
do not
primarily
turn
upon
the nature of the
products
or even the
message
conveyed
about the
products,
then the obvious re
sponse
is that
they
involve the means
by
which the
consumer is accessed in e-commerce.
And,
this I
would
maintain,
is
exactly right.
Our real concern
with such
practices
is not with the
products
in
volved,
or even what is claimed about the
products,
but with the innovative means
by
which businesses
Ethical
Significance of
Internet
Marketing
275
can relate to
potentid
consumers. Others have made
similar claims
(see,
for
instance, Radin,
2001).
But
why
should this
pose
a
problem,
and what
exactly
is
the nature of the
problem?
The answer to these
questions
is less obvious and has
not,
to
my mind,
been
fuUy explored.
Here,
I wiU
proceed by arguing
for two inter-related claims. The first is that we
should think of the ethicd issues
posed by
e-com
merce
primarily
in relation to what I wiU term the
questions
of
technique
that
they
raise. The second is
that
questions
of
technique
are
particularly important
to address because
they
deal with transformations in
both the kinds of
relationships
that we have with
others as weU as with the
concepts
that are used in
determining
the ethical norms
governing
these
relationships.
The first
point
is the easier one to see. What I w?l
caU
questions
of
technique
in business ethics turn on
questions involving
the means
by
which a
business
interacts with its consumers or
potential
consumers
rather than on the nature of the
product
or service
itself or the
message put
out about that
product.
They
involve
questions,
for
instance,
about how a
business can access consumers for the
purposes
of
marketing
or
seUing
a
product
in the first
place.
And,
I think it is clear that the
underlying
sense of unease
that is found in
many
discussions of e-commerce
clearly
relate to such
questions.
What has
changed
radically
with the advent and
growth
of e-commerce
is
not,
at least not
primarily,
the
type
of
products
involved or the
types
of claims that are made about
these
products.
This is
again
not to
say
that
problems
with these sorts of issues are not
present
in e-com
merce,
it is
just
to
say
that
they
are
present
in e
commerce
largely
to the same extent that that
they
were
present
in
marketing
in the
past. Rather,
what
has
rapidly changed
is the
way
in which the Internet
aUows businesses to interact with consumers. And
this,
I would
argue,
is
proving
to be the red chal
lenge
to our
understanding
of the ethics of Internet
marketing.
With each of the
practices
involved in
e-commerce discussed
here,
as with a host of
others,
what we are
finding
is that businesses now have
fundamentaUy
new
ways
of
interacting
with
consumers that raise serious and
largely
new
ques
tions for our
understanding
of business ethics. The
most
significant
ethical
questions
that can be raised
about e-commerce involve
questions surrounding
the
very
techniques by
which businesses can now
interact with consumers and
questions
as to how
these
techniques
are
transforming
the nature of the
relationship
between consumers and marketers.
Answering
these
questions,
I wiU
argue,
means
examining
the
applicabiUty
of
many
of the
concepts
we have used in the
past
to discuss
legal
and moral
issues about the
relationship
between businesses and
the
public
to the world of e-commerce.
Again,
in some sense this is
readily
obvious.
Spamming
aUows
companies
to access
large
numbers
of consumers
easily
and
inexpensively.
The use of
pop-ups
aUows
companies
to direct
messages
to
consumers in
very unexpected,
at least from the
consumer's
point
of
view,
and selected
ways.
Like
wise, cookies,
web
bugs,
and other
data-mining
technologies
aUow
companies
to
gather
information
on consumers and track consumer behavior in order
to market
products
to consumers in
highly targeted
manners. In each
case,
Internet
technologies
aUow
businesses to interact with consumers in
ways
that
were not
possible
in the
past.
Ethical
questions
sur
rounding
the use of such innovative
technologies
to
establish connections with consumers is what I am
terming
ethical
questions
of
technique.
The issue I
wiU next turn to is what
questions
of
technique
in
volve and
why
I believe
they
are so
important.
I would first note that ethical
questions
of tech
nique
are not
completely
new,
nor have
they gone
completely
unnoticed
by
ethicists
(see
for
instance,
Thompson, 1997).
The
development
of
a
national
postal system gave
birth to the use of mass
marketing
and direct
mailing.
The invention of the
telephone
eventuaUy
led to the use of the unsolicited sales caU
by
marketers.
And,
television
advertising
aUowed
businesses to enter the home of the
average
con
sumer in a
significant way
for the first time. Each of
these
technologies
led to
changes
in the means
by
which businesses could interact with
consumers,
and
each resulted in at least some reflection as to the
ethics
involving
the use of these
techniques (Radin,
2001). Nonetheless,
I would
argue
that the devel
opment
of the Internet and the
technologies
of e
commerce have made
questions
of
technique
more
pressing
then ever.
My general
thesis then is that business relation
ships,
like
any
sort of
relationships,
are estabhshed on
the basis of the means
by
which the
persons
involved
interact.
And,
as
technology changes
the means
by
which
persons interact,
there wiU be ramifications
upon
the nature of
relationships
that are
possible,
as
weU as
upon
our
understanding
of the norms and
concepts
that
govern
such
relationships. My
more
specific point
is that
just
such a
change
is
being
signaled
with the
emerge
of the
technologies
of
e-commerce,
and that such a
change
is
altering
the
basic nature of the
relationship
that exists between
consumers and businesses.
Further,
such a
change
is
affecting
the
way
in which we have
previously
understood the ethical Umits and norms
governing
these
relationships
in a fundamental manner. In the
next
section,
I will more
fuUy
flesh out these claims
as weU as illuminate the source of this transformation
and its normative
implications.
Philosophical
and ethical
quandaries:
The new
world of business on the internet
My
contention is that the
technologies
of e-com
merce are
fundamentaUy altering
the kind of rela
tionships
that businesses can and do have with
consumers,
and with this transformation the
appli
cability
of our
previous understanding
of the norms
and
concepts governing
these
relationships.
To flesh
out this
claim,
we should note that
many persons
have
quite rightly
seen that
many
of the
questions
of
technique
related to e-commerce turn on issues of
privacy
and
property
as weU
(see
for
instance,
Bennett, 2001;
Maury
and
Kleiner, 2002; Radin,
2001;
and Stead and
Gilbert, 2001).
However,
what
has been less
clearly
seen is that the issue
goes deeper
than this. That
is, any attempt
to
simply apply
our
habitual notions of
privacy
and
property
to the
context of e-commerce is bound to be
unsatisfying
since the kinds of
relationship
from which our
understanding
of these
concepts
was derived and to
which
they
are
normaUy app?ed
are themselves
being
altered. What
reaUy
needs to be examined is
the
very
nature of the
relationships
that are made
possible by
the
technologies
of the Internet and
then,
and
only
then,
wiU the full
significance
of the issues
engendered by
e-commerce
emerge.
To see this
point,
we should note that notions
such as those of
privacy
and
property
are
inherently
social in nature. These
concepts
would make Uttle
sense and be Uttle needed if we existed as
completely
isolated
individuals,
since
they essentiaUy
concern
the Umits that we
place
on the
way
in which others
can access ourselves and the fruits of our endeavors.
As social
concepts, they
are derived in relation to the
sorts of social
relationships
that are
present
within
given
social structures. But social structures
change,
and with them so too do our
concepts
of such no
tions as
privacy
and
property. Importantly, changes
in
technology
allow
persons
to have access to others
in
ways
that were hitherto not
possible,
and thus
change
the sorts of
relationships
that are
possible
between individuals in a
given
set of social
practices
(Winner, 1993).
In this
paper
I am
arguing
that
just
such a set of transformations is
being brought
about
by
the
technologies
available on the Internet.
Pop-ups,
cookies,
and
spam
in this
regard
are
merely
illustrative of a
deeper
set of
technological
transfor
mations that is
fundamentally altering
the sorts of
relationships
that are
possible
between businesses and
consumers. The
very
fabric of the business world is
itself
being
altered
by
these
technologies
in
ways
that
are
stressing
our
previous understanding
of the nat
ure and limits of the
relationship
between consumers
and businesses.
There is no doubt that notions of
privacy
and
property
have been
to the
Western
legal
and moral tradition in modern times
(May, 1980).
These
concepts
have been
shaped by
a
certain notion of
individuality
central to the Western
understanding
of the self
(Taylor, 1989).
This notion
of
individuality,
in
turn,
has been defined in refer
ence to the kinds of
relationships
that our social
practices
have
previously
involved. Of
course,
one
of the
important
set of
relationships
involved has
been those found in commerce.
And,
this notion of
individuality
has thus been at the heart of our
understanding
of the ethical norms
governing
rela
tionships
of commerce. The notion of individual
autonomy
involved
places great emphasis upon
an
individual's
ability
to determine the
way
in which
other individuals interact with them
(Buss, 2002).
Until
recently,
this notion was
largely
defined in
terms of
physical
access to a
person
or to the
physical
control of the
goods
that she
possessed,
and thus so
too were the
concepts
of
privacy
and
property
that
governed relationships
between
persons, including
those found in the world of business. This is not
surprising,
since the
physical separation
between
persons
and
goods
were the characteristic
way
in
which the
separation
of individuals was understood
in these
relationships.
Ethical
Significance of
Internet
Marketing
277
However,
what we are
finding
is that notions of
privacy
and
property grounded
in an
understanding
of
relationships
that are defined in terms of
physicality
are not
easily applicable
to the context of
the Internet and to the
technologies
of e-commerce.
As I have
shown,
the
technologies
of e-commerce
are
unique
in that
they
are
redefining
the
way
in
which consumers can be accessed
by
businesses.
What is
unique
about these
technologies
is that
they
aUow
companies
to access consumers in
ways
that do
not involve the sorts of
physical
transactions that
have been seen as
paradigmatic
of definitions of
privacy
and
property
in the
past.
The world of
cyberspace,
in which businesses interact with con
sumers,
is not a
physical
world,
at least not in the
way
that
shops,
offices,
and maUs
are,
and the no
tions of
privacy, property
and related
concepts
do
not weU
apply
in this world. As Colin Bennet
(2001)
argues,
the Internet is
creating
a new form of life
with its own distinctive kinds of social interactions
and
practices.
The new kinds of
relationships
that
these
technologies
involve are defined
primarily
in
terms of access to information rather than in terms of
physical accessibility.
Rather than
merely apply
our
old
concepts
of
privacy
and
property
to these con
texts,
we need to confront the
very
conditions of the
relationships
established in the world of e-commerce
themselves.
I would maintain that
confronting
the
larger
question
of the
implication
that these
technologies
have for the kinds of
relationships
that are
possible
between businesses and consumers in the world of
the Internet needs our attention for at least three
reasons. For
one, the sorts of
technological
advances
that have occurred with the
development
of the
Internet and related
computer technologies
have
quite simply
advanced at a
speed
that is
unprece
dented in
history.
As such we
have,
as a
society,
had
little time to absorb the
significance
of these
changes
for our lives. If the
concepts
that we use to deter
mine the ethical
parameters
of business are
derived
from the
type
of
relationships
that are
possible
within
the social
sphere,
then it is
important
that we reflect
upon
the
changes
that the
technologies
of e-com
merce are
bringing
to the
relationship
between
businesses and consumers. While such
changes
have
always
been
occurring,
the rate of the transformation
is
making
our
attempts
to absorb the
significance
of
these
changes particularly
difficult. The
adjustment
of the
concepts governing
the ethics of
relationships
in the
past
was easier in
part
because the
progression
of the transformation was
gradual.
However,
in the
digital age,
these transformations are
taking place
at a
speed
that hinders our
ability
to absorb their
impact
fully
into our
conceptual apparatus.
Second,
the sorts of
techniques
that e-commerce
involve
are
largely
difficult to avoid and/or invisible
to the
average
consumer,
who either is unable to
control them while
browsing
on the Internet or is
even unaware of their
very
existence and the means
by
which
they operate.
While the sorts of
techniques
used
by
marketers in the
past
were
largely
such that
the consumer had the
ability
to determine the extent
to which
they
would be
subject
to
them,
the new
techniques
used on the Internet tend to make the
access easier to control from the
point
of view of
businesses and less easier to control from the
point
of
view of consumers. The world of e-commerce in a
sense is
reversing
the direction
by
which the terms of
access between consumers and marketers is dictated.
And,
much of the unease that is
expressed by
the
general public
with Internet interactions reflects this
sense of loss on the
part
of consumers.
Third,
these
techniques
have allowed businesses
to
largely
shift the burden of
cost,
both in
monetary
and
non-monetary
terms,
of such access unto the
consumer. It is not
just
that
many
of the
marketing
and
advertising techniques
are much
cheaper
then
traditional means of
advertising, though they
cer
tainly
are.
Rather,
it is also that
they
have allowed
businesses to transfer a
large part
of the
expenses
involved onto other
parties.
For
instance,
the costs of
spamming,
which are not
trivial,
are
largely
born
by
parties
other than those
sending
them,
such as the
service
providers
who must
process
such e-mail
(Spinello, 1999).
The environment of the
Internet,
in
effect,
allows businesses to
engage
in
marketing
practices quite cheaply,
but the real costs of this
ability
are
ultimately
born
by
others. And it is not
merely
the burden of
monetary
costs,
many
of these
techniques
have also
changed
who bears the burden
of other costs in these
relationships.
These tech
niques
have also shifted the burden of costs in terms
of the
time, effort,
and
knowledge spent
in estab
lishing
and
maintaining relationships
with consumers
from the businesses involved-onto the consumers. In
effect,
e-commerce
techniques
allow
companies
to
very easily
have access to consumers and consumer
information,
while
making
it
relatively difficulty
for
consumers to
prevent
such access.
Each of the above
points
?lustrate the
importance
of the shift in the
very
nature of the kind of rela
tionship
that exists between consumers and busi
nesses in the world of e-commerce. Let me end with
some
reflections on the
philosophicd significance
of
this shift and some
suggestions
as to where a
philo
sophicaUy
sensitive
understanding
of the ethicd
implications
of the
technologies
of e-commerce
should lead us. As I have
argued,
an essentid element
of the Western notion of
individudity
has concerned
an
emphasis upon
our
abiHty
to limit the
access that
others have to ourselves.
Limiting
such access has
been seen as crucial to our
ability
to determine our
own Uves free from undue influence from others.
What the world of
e-cornrnerce,
and the world of
the Internet more
generaUy,
is
transforming
is the
ways
in which others can have access to our
lives,
by
means that no
longer rely upon physical
interven
tions and are
largely opaque
to us. In the
past,
at least
in the context of a
capitdist understanding
of the
market,
it was
largely
assumed that individuals had
the
abiHty
to control the access that others had to
them
through assuring
them control over their
physicd
self and
possessions.
Since
physical
viola
tions of
space
or control are
fairly transparent,
the
proper
Hmits between individuals were
fairly
weU
demarcated and the ethical norms
governing
rela
tionships
were derived from these distinctions.
In the world of e-commerce,
it would seem
that
the sorts of
relationships
that are
possible give
busi
nesses the dmost constant
ab?ity
to have access to
consumers in various
ways,
and to shift the cost of
that access back onto the
pubHc
itself. But the access
involved defies the
appHcation
of traditional con
cepts governing
the limits of access since it does not
involve the sorts of
physicd
contacts that were
previously
seen as
paradigmatic
of social relation
ships.
What is now needed is to determine what
concepts
are
going
to
govern
the limits of these
transformed
relationships.
I would
argue
that
though
the benefits of these new
relationships
are
manifold,
they
must be bdanced
by
a need to
preserve
at least
part
of the centrd notion of
individudity
which has
been at the heart of our
understanding
of
autonomy.
And,
this means that we must find new
ways
of
governing
the sorts of accesses
that businesses have to
consumers that
preserves
at least elements of con
sumers'
ability
to determine the Umits of this
accessibility.
In the
past,
the norms and Umits that were
placed
on
relationships
between
persons
were
designed
to
guarantee
this control of access.
However,
those
norms were
developed
in a social context in which
the means of access were
primarily physical
ones,
and
our
concepts
of
privacy
and
property
were
largely
developed
in relation to this context. In the world of
e-commerce this is what has
changed.
Access in the
world of
digital computing
is
primarily
a virtual
access,
one that involves access to and control
over
information about ourselves rather than control over
the
physical
boundaries between us.
As
such,
what is
reaUy
needed is
way
of
assuring
that individuals retain some
degree
of control over
the
accessibility
that others have to them. While it is
beyond
the
scope
of this
paper
to
go
into
specific
details as to how this
might
be
addressed,
I would
suggest
that at a
minimum,
this will involve two
important
elements.
One,
there needs to be a
greater
emphasis
on
transparency regarding
the kinds of
transactions that are made
possible
within the rela
tionships
between consumers and businesses on the
Internet. Since the sorts of connections that exist
between consumers and businesses in e-commerce
that we
have discussed take
place,
as it
were,
underneath the surface of the activities that con
sumers
engage
in on the
Internet,
it is often difficult
for them to understand that
they
are
being
estab
lished,
how
they
are
being
carried
out,
or how to
control them. An
emphasis
on the need for trans
parency
would stress that it is
impossible
for some
one to control how others are
accessing
them if
they
are not aware of the nature and
purpose
of that ac
cess. Ethical e-commerce
practices
should strive to
make
any
access of
customers,
whether
through
e-mails, cookies,
etc. as
transparent
as
possible
to the
consumer, for
only
then can the consumer
truly
consent to the kind of interactions that occur be
tween themselves and the businesses involved.
Second,
and
stemming
from the first
point, public
regulation
of the sorts of interactions that are aUowed
and the conditions of their use wiU be of
paramount
importance.
Whether
through
direct
government
action or
through semi-governmental regulatory
bodies,
a
greater degree
of
independent
control needs
to be
provided
to maintain the
appropriate
uses
of
Internet
technologies
in e-commerce.
Because the
Ethical
Significance of
Internet
Marketing
279
technologies
of e-commerce are not
readily
trans
parent
and because
fuUy understanding
their
use is
often
beyond
the
capability
of the
average
consumer,
there is a
greater
need for third
party oversight.
While
consumers could be
expected
to
easily
monitor the
access that businesses had to them under models
based on
physical
interaction,
they
cannot be held to
do so in the world of e-commerce.
Thus,
there is
stronger
need for
public regulation
to
provide
con
sumers with some assurance about the kind of access
that businesses have to them and to make the nature
of these
relationships
as
transparent
as
possible
to
consumers who
might
lack the
ability
to do so
themselves. The
goal
of such
regulation
should in
part
be to
put
the burden of
costs,
again monetarily
and
non-monetarily,
of
accessibility
to consumers
back onto businesses.
Many
businesses have them
selves
sought stronger legal regulatory
control over
the
way
in which consumers can access the
products
they produce,
as in the case of music
downloading
and related
practices. IronicaUy perhaps,
what con
sumers should demand is the same sort of
regulatory
control over the
accessibility
that businesses have to
information about themselves and over the use to
which it is
put.
Conclusion
In this
paper
I have
argued
that the various
practices
that are
commonly
involved in e-commerce raise
deep philosophical
issues
involving
the manner in
which
technology
can transform the nature ofbusiness
relationships
in
ways
that
chaUenge
some of the fun
damental
concepts
that have characterized these
relationships
in the
past. Raising
such
questions
I have
argued
moves us
beyond
the
typical questions
of
product
that have dominated discussions of the ethics
of
marketing
in the
past
and into
questions
of tech
nique
that involve the
very
means
by
which businesses
relate to consumers in the first
place.
Such
questions
are both much more
important
and much more dif
ficult to deal with because
they
reveal the
way
in
which
technology
can transform the basic structures of
the social
sphere
itself in such
a
way
as to have
deep
ramifications for the
application
of
many
of the con
cepts normaUy appealed
to in discussions
concerning
the ethical and
legal
norms
governing
business
prac
tices. In
specific,
I have tried to show that
lurking
underneath the surface of the
general public
concern
with such now common e-commerce
practices
such
as
spamming, pop-ups,
and cookies lie a host of
philosophical
and ethicd issues
concerning
the
way
in
which the
technologies
of the Internet are funda
mentaUy transforming
the nature of the
relationship
that businesses have with consumers and the
public.
In
turn,
I have tried to show that this transformation has
deep implications
for our
understanding
of such fun
damental notions as
privacy
and
property
as weU as for
our
understanding
of how the
costs,
monetarily
and
otherwise,
of
doing
business are
properly
aUocated.
While I have offered some
suggestions
as to how we
might
address
some of the ethical
implications
of these
transformations,
I have above all
attempted
to show
that it is
important
that we face
up
to the
chaUenges
brought
with these
technologies
in a more
systematic
fashion than has been done as of
yet. If,
as I have
argued, technologies bring
with them the
abiHty
to
fundamentaUy
dter the nature of the kind of rela
tionships
that exist between businesses and
consumers,
then it is
that we address the
ethical
implications
of these
changes
before the
transformation is
complete.
Notes
For a
good,
brief, survey
of the
early history
and
development
of the
Internet,
see
Sterling (1993).
The textbooks
surveyed
were
Beauchamp
and Bowie
(2004),
Donaldson and Werhane
(1999),
Hoffman,
et al.
(2001)
and Shaw and
Barry (2001).
This is not to
say
that these issues have not been raised
by
others.
Indeed,
later in the
paper
I
point
out some
authors who have addressed what I am here
calling
questions
of
technique
to some extent.
However,
these
issues have been
largely
addressed in the context of more
general
discussions of
technology,
not from the
perspec
tive of
viewing
them as basic issues in
marketing
and
advertising
ethics as I
approach
them here.
References
Beauchamp,
T. and N. Bowie:
2004,
Ethical
Theory
and
Business,
7th edition
(Prentice Hall,
Upper
Saddle
River,
NJ).
Bennett,
C:
2001, 'Cookies,
Web
Bugs,
Webcams,
and
Cue Cats: Patterns of Surveillance
on the World Wide
Web',
Ethics and
Information Technology 3(3),
197-210.
Buss,
S.:
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Department of Philosophy,
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4314
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Warren,
OH
44483,
U.S.A.
E-mail:
dpalmer
1
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edu

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