Computer Matching

Computer Matching
Computer profiling and mistakes in the computer matching of personal data are other controversial threats to privacy.

Individuals have been mistakenly arrested and jailed and people have been denied credit because their physical profiles or personal data have been used by profiling software to match them incorrectly or improperly with wrong individuals.

Another threat is the unauthorized matching of computerized information about extracted from databases of sales transaction processing systems, and sold to information brokers or other companies.

A more recent threat is the unauthorized matching and sale of information about you collected from Internet websites and newsgroup you visit.

You are then subjected to a barrage of unsolicited promotional material and sales contacts as well as having your privacy violated.
Computer Matching

The Benefits of a Collaborative Approach

The Benefits of a Collaborative Approach

• Greater involvement means more commitment and understanding of E-Business.
  
• People working together and sharing information tend to trust each other more.
  
• Involvement and shared knowledge produces better quality work.
  
• There is back-up within the team and among the project leaders.
  
• Working on issues together helps to build skills of the people in E-business.
  
• E-Business work is more likely to end successfully on time and within budget.
  
• A ready forum is available in which to gather lessons learned on E-Business.
  
• Better communication allows for earlier warning of problems.

Collaboration does involve some additional startup work to get team members up to speed.

• Project members have to be trained in some of the project management methods.
  
• More project leader time is spent in managing the coordination.
  

However, these are offset by the benefits.
The Benefits of a Collaborative Approach

Identification and Authentication of the Parties

Identification and Authentication of the Parties
One of the major problems that contracting on the Net faces is the difficulty of establishing the identity of the party who is on the other side of the transaction.

The exchange of valuables which is at the heart of contract law losses meaning if the parties exchanging them do not exactly know that there is somebody at the other side who is what she claims to be.

This is not necessarily because of any need to know the other person’s particulars or in view of future business prospects, but to be sure that if anything goes wrong the party claiming redress knows how to get to or communicate with that other party.

In contract law terms, the innocent party should have sufficient information about the party in default or alleged breach of the contract so as to pursue her claims against that party successfully.

The problem of not being able to establish the identity of a person transacting on the Net readily is made worse by the use of ‘remailers’ nor ‘anonymizers.’

These are software programs which can cloak the identity of a contracting party by either removing or replacing the actual address from which a party is sending messages so that it becomes impossible to trace that party.

From a practical angle, where such software is used the party that pays for goods in the Net but does not received the goods will not be able to establish of the seller is real or a phantom or whether she is residing at the specified origin of the electronic communication of acceptance or notice of delivery.

Another way on which a party may be prevented from establishing the identity of the other side is “spoofing,” that is use by the latter party of identity or account of another person to masquerade as that other person.

This is done not only by faking the identity of another party, but also by altering or falsifying e-mails so that the identity of a non-transacting party is assumed.

There are several spy programs that monitor the keystrokes of people to imitate their identity and misrepresent them.

It is therefore vital for contracting parties to know, and have confidence that the other parity is genuine and fits the description that she has supplied about herself during the transaction.

The common use of passwords as a means of identity authentication has been found to be deficient, open as it is to deliberate or inadvertent disclosure, backing or some other means of intervention or eavesdropping.

Among the more reliable emerging forms of authentication of parties employing electronics means of transactions is the use of digital signature technology.

Biometric techniques (such as fingerprinting, handwriting or voice recognition, retinal, or hand geometry scanning) are still in a process of development or immensely expensive to adopt at the moment.
Identification and Authentication of the Parties

E-Business is Magic

E-Business is Magic
By magic we mean that e-business has pervasive and long lasting positive effects. Here are some margin elements of e-business:

• E-business tends to be self enforcing. If you screw up, either customers or suppliers will start screaming. You will have to act. How many methods and processes do you know with this characteristic? Not many.
  


• Done right, e-business forces a company to look within its soul and really determine what its business goals are. E-business success depends on the support of many different employees. Thus, a critical success factor is collaboration among many employees.
  


• E-business continues to change the organization and business processes after it goes live. Why? Because the employees, customers and suppliers begin to have a role in business direction.
  


• E-business provides the basis for measurement internally and externally.
  


• E-business is positive and fun. E-business is not downsizing or reengineering, which tend to be depressing because they result in layoff. The good people leave and the gnomes and trolls stay. Instead, e-business implementation can get people excited. Roles change, but you probably won’t lose good people.
  


• Perhaps the greatest magic of all is that when you implement e-business, you have the opportunity to improve the lives of employees and service level to customers and to strength relationship with suppliers.
  

In short there are few things like e-business that have come along in the past 40 years in computer and communications. E-business is really the next step step in evolution of the application beyond online systems.
E-Business is Magic