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and create online communities to replace the social exchange consumers make in real life shopping scenarios McWilliam, 2000. The ease of building strong
relationships between consumers and companies can be attributed to the customized communication between the parties which cannot be achieved with
mass media Chiagouris, 2000. However, this still does not resolve the question about whether the Web can fully replace the social value of online shopping.
Meanwhile, it is important to remember that marketers are just as threatened from the loss of social interactivity as consumers. The benefits companies might lose as
a result of less social shopping could be another very interesting issue to work on.
2.4.3 Ethical Issues, Privacy and Security Concerns
The Internet was originally designed to be an environment accommodating a free flow of communications Paul, 1996, thus, the legal framework for Web-based
transactions are incomplete, unclear or contradictory Wijnholds and Little, 2001. There is no governing body in this platform and handshake standards are used,
which can work only as long as users have an implicit agreement to cooperate and show respect for one an-other Umbaugh, 1996. Although there are many
governmental and non-governmental units working to develop generally applicable legal impositions and rules for the cyber market, ethical concerns and
the perceived risks about privacy and security problems remain as the single most important factor deterring consumers from engaging in commercial transactions
in the online market without hesitation. Privacy
– One of the most commonly mentioned problems about online markets is the intrusion of privacy, which refers to the improper access, collection,
monitoring, analysis, transfer and storage of confidential consumer information Bloom et al., 1994 . The power of technology might be intentionally abused by
marketers for the purpose of improving their market knowledge and response mechanisms. Thus balancing beneficial use of data sources with the privacy rights
of individuals is one of the most challenging public policy issues of the information age Wang et al., 1998 since consumers have to give up some privacy
in exchange for the benefits of the Web Robertson and Sarathy, 2002. This created a tendency to discuss how consumers could be protected as well as
how firms could reduce privacy and security concerns of individuals. There are many studies offering guidelines to win the trust of consumers, discussing the
