Essay Example on The legal issues include anti spamming laws Intellectual Property

Legal Issues The legal issues include anti spamming laws intellectual property laws international issues and the option to register the trademark of the online business at either the state or federal level Laws relating to the web are evolving rapidly and vary by country and region As a web developer it is your responsibility to stay abreast of important legal issues that affect your business and your customers Ultimately a state registered trademark protects from infringement within that state A federally registered trademark provides protection across the entire country but is only available if you do business with other states or internationally Customers will use their credit card information to purchase clothing

Therefore the ecommerce platform provider can show transactions that span beyond state borders Hence it will be gainfully beneficial to implement protection of a federally registered mark to the website When you register your trademark it is presumed to be your property Having to prove use and ownership of an unregistered mark however can be difficult and expensive A trademark is an asset to your business that is worth protecting and registering your mark is the best way to do that If your website allows users to post information it is important to include a terms of use agreement that users are required to submit before posting any content This agreement should include statements specifying that users are not allowed to post copyrighted material that you are not responsible to validate their content as original and that users are responsible for any actions resulting from content they post If a user violates a copyright on your website then the fact that he or she agreed to your terms of use may protect you

Any unique features of the website should be patented for instance a One-Click Ordering system To do the payments consumer has to provide credit or debit card details and as a result, the e-commerce website must be registered under the Data Protection Act Ethical Issues The ethical issues will comprise basic values for responsible actions and practices such as spamming and sending viruses which are incorporated into cyber laws Ethical behavior for web professionals include not sending any unsolicited bulk email or spam

Not buying domain names that you do not intend to use Not knowingly spreading malicious program code such as viruses or worms Not passing along chain e-mail messages especially those that imply threats Being honest with your customers and not overcharging for technical services that they may not understand There must be a privacy disclaimer statement on the web site as it is essential on sites that collect information beyond normal log files Privacy policies detail the ways that information is gathered and whether it is transferred to third parties If information is transferred to third parties the privacy statement should also describe how the information is transferred The online business privacy statement should be honest and open rather than vague The business may also need to share customer data if it develops a partnership with another web site It is advisable to state these possible scenarios in your privacy policy even if they are not immediately foreseeable situations because excluding them could look secretive All privacy disclaimer statements should include information collection giving a technical description of how user data is collected on the web site 

This description should specify the types of data that are required to perform a transaction or create an account and the types of data that are optional

The description should also specify the types of data that are gathered in aggregate rather than for a specific user The use of information such as a detailed description of how user data is used on the website This description should specify whether user data will be used to send occasional email messages to the users or to create personalized recommendations for them as they browse the site The transfer of information must outline a description detailing the situations in which user data will or might be transferred to a third party The web site content must ensure that any content used including text images and multimedia is either your own original content and thus protected from unauthorized use by others or borrowed content that you have proper permission to use If you want to use another author s copyrighted content text images music code etc for your web site or other purpose you may be able to license the content from its owner for your use Professional Issues Prior to carrying out transactions consumers must read the website privacy and security policies 

These policies must be clearly visible on the website to all users Ecommerce business responsibility is to provide guidelines and company policies to the consumer When using the website consumers must keep their password private use secure payment methods such as check free and Paypal payment processing services

The purchaser must not reuse the same password for other websites and not reply or update credit card details or payment methods The website should be updated frequently to ensure the protection of the website and avoid consumers from risks such as hacking Social Issues The website should be user friendly and easy to navigate for all consumers which may include persons with disabilities older people persons with low literacy or not fluent in the language people with low bandwidth connections or using older technologies new and infrequent users and mobile phone users who may want to make clothing purchases from the website The response time in accessing the website should not be too slow