An important policy issue for the Internet

The growth of the Internet has greatly affected the number of policy issues related to the online world. Some of them include: Internet privacy issues, concerns about computer and Internet security, broadband Internet access, spam issues, issues with the domain name system and least but not last identity theft issues.
The growth of Internet and e-commerce has taken ID theft to new levels. Using broadly available Internet tools, thieves trap naive computer users into providing personal data, which they then use for unlawful purposes.
The prospective for fraud is a major obstacle in the development of online commerce. E-payment and e-banking services are affected significantly by public distrust.
Considering the growth of online ID theft, many OECD (Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development) member countries have taken steps to make certain that consumers and Internet users are sufficiently protected. These steps include various measures like: consumer and user-awareness campaigns, new legislative frameworks, and industry-led initiatives focused on technical responses.
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Effective and ineffective use of PR online

In my opinion, ineffective PR online are any activities that present misleading information that is inaccurate. This can also include deceitful activities that manipulate the use of the Internet. I believe it’s very important to not engage in these type of activities as they can greatly damage one’s reputation.

I believe effective PR online must definitely include blogging. By creating and updating your blog and also, monitoring other relevant blogs and commenting on them, you get your point of view out there. An example of such blog is “The Martha Blog: Up Close and Personal” (marthastewart.com/blogs).
This blog offers you complete access to Martha’s world, with daily updates on her family, friends, philanthropies, pets, gardens, and parties. The blog is just one tool Stewart uses to promote her products and lifestyle. It allows readers to post comments and questions that Martha Stewart herself will respond to. But most importantly, it allows Martha’s followers to feel much closer to her. In comparison with other blogs, Martha Stewart’s is simple but it does deliver what she promises, access to her personal world.

Find three examples of ineffective Web sites

It was hard for me to narrow down to only 3 ineffective Web sites considering that there are so many out there. But, nevertheless, here are my top 3:

- MySpace.com. This may seem like a weird pick considering the popularity of MySpace, but in my view the Web site is very counterproductive and poorly designed. From the point of view of the graphics, MySpace pages are awful; there are a lot of huge photos and incompatible backgrounds. Spyware is also a problem for MySpace.com, as is its lack of safeguards to protect minors.

- Evite.com. This is a perfect example of a Web site where the ads are very intrusive. Also, navigation should be a primary concern when developing a Web site and Evite.com definitely should focus more on it considering that navigation on their Web site right now is a drag.

- Southwest.com This Web site is actually not that bad until you may want to buy a plane ticket. That’s when it gets tricky. Because if you miss filling in any field the transaction will not go through. And you may think that’s normal, but the problem is that you can’t go back and enter the missing data. So, every time you make a little mistake, you have to start over. Also, for frequent fliers it would make sense to for the Web site to give the option of establishing a profile. This way the data would be stored and the process of buying a plane ticket would be a lot simpler and would take less time.