Legal and Ethical issues in E-marketing

How marketers use technology to gather information, both online and off, to foster long term relationships with customers has raised many legal and ethical issues. Some of these issues include personal privacy and unsolicited e-mail.
One of the major privacy issues involves the personal information companies collect from their website visitors. According to a survey by the Progress and Freedom Foundation, 96% of popular commercial websites collect personally identifying information from visitors, usually through cookies. Some people fear that websites are collecting personal information which violates their privacy, especially if it's done without their knowledge. In response to this, some companies are cutting back on the amount of information they collect. Companies can legally buy and sell information about customers to gain a competitive advantage. Some companies recognize privacy concerns and strive to protect customer security.
I'am a member to many different websites and I shop online every now and then. This definitely is a big issue, I didn't realize that websites keep a lot of your personal information and can sell it to other companies. If I do buy something online I check out as a guest and not a member so you would think that the company doesn't store your information but I'm sure they do after reading this. It is pretty scary and companies need to start protecting their customers security. I definitely don't want my personal informatin roaming around on the web to different people, I would like to trust the company to protect my security.
Spam is also another issue. Many internet users believe that spam violates their privacy and steals their resources. Many companies also hate spam because it costs them around $22 billion a year in antispam filters, new equipment and lost productivity. Another issue is phishing which is the practice of sending fraudulent that appear to come from a trusted, legitimate source and request personal information for the purpose of committing identity theft. Phishing meggages will often come from financial firms, like Citibank and may direct viewers to an authentic-looking website to trick them into giving personal information including account numbers and passwords. This is a big issue and everyone needs to be cautious and aware of all these threats to your private information.

Everyone needs to keep an eye out when they are reading and responding to e-mails. Have you ever received an email that seemed fishy? Maybe you thought something was odd about it so you deleted it or maybe responded but didn't know it was a phishing email?