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Online Trust Failing Overall

Posted by Zonk on from the bungling-lowers-confidence dept.

twitter writes "The BBC and ZDNet are reporting on an RSA poll of 1,000 users about failing confidence in ecommerce. 43% of respondents were reluctant to give details to online sites and 70% said that firms were not doing enough to keep their data secure. The BBC goes on to quote experts who back up the perception, ZDNet claims that action is being taken and is well."

6 of 197 comments (clear)

  1. Sheesh... by 14erCleaner · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Most people who distrust internet commerce will gladly hand their credit card over to minimum-wage waiters, who disappear into the back room of the restaurant with it for ten minutes. It's all a matter of image and perception.

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    1. Re:Sheesh... by BitwiseX · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You beat me to this one. I would GLADLY use my CC over the internet before I would give it to a waiter, cashier, etc. There is little or no difference. Do you have any idea of knowing what happens to those CC slips your local Mom & Pop restaurant process daily? About as much as you have of knowing what happens to your CC# once you buy something at amazon.com. Why all the paranoia? 6 of 1, half a dozen of the other. Put your faith in your CC company and their fraud prevention.

    2. Re:Sheesh... by ArmchairGenius · · Score: 4, Insightful
      Very good point. The credit card companies are responsible for fraud, so while I obviously am careful about who I give my CC info to, I am not all that worried about it being on some company's database out there in cyberspace.

      Everyone should look at their monthly bills and notify the CC company of any erroneous/fraudulent charges. Then the CC company can take that up with the vendor that made the charge. It's the beauty of using a credit card.

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    3. Re:Sheesh... by nacturation · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You beat me to this one. I would GLADLY use my CC over the internet before I would give it to a waiter, cashier, etc.

      Same here. I think for most people, though, it's really just a fear of the unknown. Their credit card gets whisked off to some magical technological storage and they can't see what's happening. Even though they don't understand what really happens, their concerns are somewhat justified. There's a different scale of fraud possible when your credit card number gets stored in an online database vs. a waiter writing down the number.

      In the case of a waiter, barring organized crime rings, your card might get used to order a couple of items and that's about it. With an online database, if that site gets hacked your number is now likely circulating amongst various hacker groups and could easily be used to rack up a lot of charges.

      However, in either case your remedy is the same. Contact your credit card issuer, dispute the charges, then they go after the merchants who have to prove that a transaction was made by the owner. If they haven't swiped your card through their terminal and obtained your signature, then the merchant loses that money. Unfortunately, it's always the merchants who take the largest risk in accepting credit card payments.

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    4. Re:Sheesh... by nine-times · · Score: 4, Insightful
      I can think of one difference: I know that the restaurant I'm in is the restaurant I mean to be in. As far as I know, there hasn't been much reason to worry about "fake" restaurants that take your credit card numbers and then don't bring you food, and when you call the authorities, the storefront evaporates. I guess someone could try a scam like that, but I haven't heard of it being much of a problem.

      But web pages? Most people can't really tell the difference between a real store's site and a fake page designed to look like a real store's site. Plus the ettiquite of net behavior isn't as firmly set in people's mind. If the waiter from the restaurant shows up on your doorstep saying, "Ummm.... yeah, I'm gonna need your credit card for a few more minutes, for the restaurant, I mean," you'd know it was fishy. But a convincing-looking e-mail claiming to be from ebay, people don't know the difference between that and a real e-mail from ebay.

  2. Case in point: ChoicePoint by PHAEDRU5 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Here in GA we have ChoicePoint, a company which recently allowed a criminal gang to make off with something like half-a-million IDs.

    Only people in California were notified of the leak, because CA has a law requiring notification. Everyone else is going to have to wait 'til their identity gets stolen.

    The GA legislature is taking up a bill to require notification of GA residents when their personal information is stolen or accidentally leaked.

    Part of the problem, IMHO, is that companies won't tell you when they've shared your information with a non-trusted third party. So, a good first step would be voluntary disclosure.

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