Tuesday, June 21, 2011

The Absence of Limitations is a Limitation

I’ve been a victim of an internet scam. It’s the same old story: win an item on ebay, transfer the funds, but you end up never getting the item. From then on, I’ve stuck to one rule when it comes to online shopping: TRADE LOCALLY! But, in doing so, I’ve entirely lost the essence of online shopping and the convenience the whole experience supposedly offers. While the technology is available, I am reluctant about fully exploiting it because of the risks entailed.

At present, the absence of a regulatory framework offers the parties little protection and makes the system prone to abuse; this, in turn, causes parties to lose confidence in the system and use it less (just like I did). Thus, the absence of regulations or limitations has become a limitation on the growth of this technology.

The disparity can clearly be seen when you look at how prevalent online shopping is in the States. Nowadays, Americans buy even toilet paper online. That’s because Amazon, and similar sites, have established protection for their users and clearly recognized rules on transactions. Thus, they use the technology with confidence.

There clearly is a need for regulation if some practical uses of technology are to be fully exploited. These don’t have to be state-initiated; in fact, I think the sites can establish these on their own. I’ve actually seen some recent developments of this (with buyer protection in ebay and escrow in auction.ph) but it still hasn’t been enough to get me back to trusting online shopping. In the end, I believe that if the technology is to grow, we need to establish regulations in order to promote that growth. After all, before we can go outside the box, we need a box in the first place.

Aldous Benjamin Camiso, Entry No. 1

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