Page 213 - Business Principles and Management

Unit 3

you frequently look at Web sites related to MP3
music or games, firms that sell these goods will
contact you and try to sell you their products.
When you buy goods on the Net, you must
provide basic information, such as name, address,
The World Wide Web is governed by an telephone number, and e-mail address. Often Web
independent board called the W3C (Word sites store this information in your computer as a
Wide Web Consortium). Point your browser to “cookie” file that the sites can retrieve when you
www.thomsonedu.com/school/bpmxtra. Visit visit again. This can be helpful when you buy from
the W3C site and evaluate its current initiatives. the business again. But the seller can also sell this
Determine what the W3C is doing to allow the personal information to other businesses without
Web to continue to grow and meet people’s your knowledge.
needs around the world. Determine the back- The Federal Trade Commission and good busi-
ground you would need to help the W3C move ness practice require that businesses notify buyers
the Web forward into the future. of their rights and how personal information will
be used. However, some businesses may not prop-
www.thomsonedu.com/school/bpmxtra erly inform buyers of their rights or continue to
sell their confidential information. These actions
are unethical and illegal in some states. Many com-
puter users would buy on the Internet if they did not fear invasion of their
privacy.
Companies must also take defensive strategies to protect electronic informa-
tion. Such strategies often include requiring user passwords to access data, saving
information as backup files, and scrambling information to make it unreadable
to others.
Firms often use firewall systems to protect information from outsiders who
try to break into their networks. A firewall uses special software that screens
people who enter and/or exit a network by requesting specific information such
as passwords. Passwords should change frequently. But even firewalls are not
totally hacker-proof. Other systems are either available or being developed. For
example, fingerprint scanning, voice verification, retina scanning, and other meth-
ods are being tested to safeguard organizational information.

CHECKPOINT

Describe the difference between an intranet and an extranet.

Information Systems

Organizations are experiencing an information explosion. New computerized
methods can gather and store more information quicker than could traditional
methods. As a result, many managers suffer from information overload, the
existence of more data than anyone can attend to. Information overload leads to
needless costs and inefficiencies as managers try to sort through all the available
information to find what they really need to make decisions. Thus, organizations
need effective means for managing information.
Employees generate business data constantly. They record sales transactions,
collect customer information, and track inventory. When employees key such data

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