The social perspective behind m-commerce indicates that social media marketing and how we communicate affects commerce. It is stated the consumers save money when they set a target price for a product, and later receive an SMS or an e-mail when the product is readily in stock at a local store. “Shoppers can use the integrated social conversation to create and obtain friend recommendations via SMS, e-mail, and Twitter and create and listen to voice reviews of the products” (“Ribbit and Best Buy Debt First Social Mobile App at SxSW,” 2009). Mobile browsers also permit users access to social networks such as MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter, along with discussion boards and forums, and with the creation of FaceTime on the iPhone 4, users are able to chat via Skype on their mobile phones. M-commerce has not only promoted and increased the social connection between consumers and businesses, but also among friends and family. With the ability to e-mail, SMS, and video chat mobile users have various ways to stay in contact with others.
Ethically, mobile commerce has many issues. For one, customer service is the largest ethical issue m-commerce faces. The lack of regulation regarding Internet transactions has afforded many individuals to partake in conduct that questions their ethics. The lack of regulations “forces Internet companies to think about their attitudes regarding consumer privacy, to decide whether or not they will disclose their policies, and to determine what short of protections they put into place” (Caldwell, 2005). While more and more websites have posted privacy policies, guides to ethical behavior are being acquired by professional organizations, in which they possess a common goal of customer consent to the dissemination of their private information. Aside from privacy, other ethical issues such as pornography, unsolicited e-mail, transaction security breaches, and questionable activities organized online, etc. Some ethical perspectives that will promote the growth of mobile commerce consist of technology and communication, globalization, the merging of separate “entities”, and the decline of government control. Technology and communication promotes the growth of m-commerce with the increasing variety of new devices, while globalization increases the volatility of stock markets on telecommunication corporations worldwide. Ethically, m-commerce helps increase the harmony between different countries for present and future generations.
Along with mobile commerce, comes the rise of legal challenges. One legal issue arises when “…a person uses his/her mobile or PDA to submit or confirm a purchase order or when a seller sells good and services through portals allocated to receive requests from wireless device via specific network providers, the resulting interrelationship between the various parties…” (Olwan, p.2). Regarding this aspect, legal concerns include the nature of the relationship and how they should be regulated, and by whom. Another legal concern are the various forms of m-commerce contracts, and the ability to identify the contracting persons, their legal capacity to contract, when the contract will be formed and how it can be proved. Crime is one of the largest legal issues in which Olwan (p.2) stated “…hackers can steal and erase information and data from mobiles and disrupt wireless network traffic by overloading the network with information and phone messages.” The disruption of the wireless network leads to mobile devices being infected with viruses and the removal of all information stored on them. The concern is how existing criminal laws will include penalties for these new crimes and how the penalties will be enforced. The next legal challenge is how payments will be conducted for purchases made via mobile web. A possible solution could be Internet credit card, but that is currently used in e-commerce, or will another method of payment be created especially for mobile commerce?
The single largest barrier to the adoption of mobile commerce is security (Australian Maritime College). Security issues regarding data encryption, protection of the wireless connection from unauthorized access, hackers, viruses, etc. concern customers as well as businesses. With so much information on the user available to the network operator, companies can purchase information about one’s whereabouts, and track their comings and goings, which leased to breach privacy. Questions arise as to whether privacy laws will be revised to include the newest creations in field of wireless communication domestically and internationally. With potential hackers, users of mobile browsers are at risk for identity theft, fraud, stalkers, etc.
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