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Small Businesses Worry About MS Anti-Phishing
prostoalex writes "Ever get that warm feeling of safety, when the anti-phishing toolbar on Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 turns green, telling you it's safe to shop on the site you're visiting? Well, you probably don't, but the millions of Internet users who will soon be running IE7 probably will be paying attention to the anti-phishing warnings. WSJ.com is reporting on how Microsoft is making it tough for small businesses to assure they're treated properly by the anti-phishing algorithm." From the article: "[S]ole proprietorships, general partnerships and individuals won't be eligible for the new, stricter security certificates that Microsoft requires to display the color. There are about 20.6 million sole proprietorships and general partnerships in the U.S... though it isn't clear how many are engaged in e-commerce... 'Are people going to trust the green more than white? Yes, they will,' says Avivah Litan, an analyst at Gartner Inc. and an expert on online payments and fraud. 'All the business is going to go to the greens, it's kind of obvious.'"
I'm a small businses owner, and guess what, I would have ZERO problems with this "green bar" policy.
Reason? I made damn sure that I'm incorporated as either a limited liability company (L.L.C) (www.3dprints4less.com - not up yet) or a S-corporation (www.seattleprototypes.com).
In this day and age of litigation, there is NO reason why if you're going into businses you should even consider sole proprietarship or general partnership agreement. IANAL, but go pick up any of the Nolo self-help books (recomemnded by lawyer friends) and they make it clear: The LLC and corp status is a bit more paperwork to upkeep, but offers MUCH better protection for the business owners. As a sole proprietarship, you are personally liable - down to your last nickel in your bank account, if your business incurs any liabilities. As a general partnership, you would be personally held liable for not only your business's liabilities, but the action of your partners well (if your partner racks up a debt, skips town, and the creditor have easy access to you - guess who's in the hot seat).
Not to mention, there's huge benifits you can get tax wise, from being a corporation or LLC. Corporate tax rates are a heck of a lot lower for one!
So, Aunt Joy making custom stockings, please, go pick up a self help book and get your business setup properly. This way some slimebag ambulance chaser can't sue you out of the house you're growing old in when some irresponsible parent let their kid chew off a bit of the stocking and the kid chokes on it.
-=- Terence
I think any comment about IE7's anti-phishing system should note that it sends every website you visit to Microsoft. If you care even an iota about the privacy of your web browsing, you should choose "no" when IE7 asks you to enable its invasive anti-phishing system.
Actually there's two issues -- site verification and anti-phishing -- which are getting mashed together because they act on a similar concept (how much can I trust this site?) and display through the color in the address bar.
White is the default state, and says nothing about the site.
Red is when the site matches a blacklist of known phishing sites. (If you have the antiphishing turned on, it will check with MS each time you load a new page.)
Green is when the site uses one of these new SSL certificates which provides additional data and (supposedly) has a tougher approval process in which the certificate authority does an actual background check on the company instead of just making sure they have a working phone number. One hopes a blacklist hit will trump this.
A secure site that uses a standard SSL cert and is not a known phisher will have a white location bar.
If you can't get a certificate as a sole proprietorship, INCORPORATE! Problem solved. [...] And this day in this sue-happy age, there's plenty of other reasons incorporation is a good idea.
Sole proprietor here. As someone who has spent a lot of time and energy looking at sole proprietorship vs llc vs s-corp incorporation, let me just mention that (contrary to popular belief) incorporation isn't some magic bullet that completely shields business owners/officers from liability - just ask Ken Lay. Incorporation does help shield business owners from the incompetence/misconduct of other employees. Of course this doesn't matter in one-person companies where (by definition) all the business decisions are made by the business owners.
Incorporation does, in theory, separate business assets from personal assets. However, in our "sue-happy" environment, there is a very easy way to get around this separation: simply sue the business *and* the owner.
There are scenarios when it makes sense to incorporate: lower tax rates (only worth it for six-figure revenues by my calcs), if you have employees, if you have multiple locations, if you're trying to establish a Chinese wall for separate-but-related business, etc.
Incorporating in my case (1-person business) would mean hiring a lawyer and accountant to file the annual state forms, draw up the stock agreement, and file the taxes in return for a few hundred dollars in tax savings and pretty much no liability protection. I found it was much cheaper to buy gen liability and E&O insurance (needed anyway for certain gov't contracts I have), and remain a sole proprietor. I imagine that this is true for hundreds (if not thousands) of other businesses across the US.