Online merchants` failure to respect their customers` best interests and maintain their privacy poses a real threat to their online offering and the online community as a whole.
Angus Brown, CEO of eBucks.com, says despite security being taken very seriously by businesses and customers alike, there has been little emphasis on the privacy of customer information.
Brown says that in many instances, businesses have free reign to use customers` private information.
"It appears few merchants have developed a privacy strategy, and even fewer have a privacy clause on their site. This lack of focus on privacy has allowed businesses to spam their customer base without fear of reprisal."
He says it`s time for customers to start getting tough with online merchants who don`t have privacy clauses.
"Before doing business with a merchant, the customer must demand that their privacy is guaranteed. The information must be protected from third-parties (and will not be sold) and marketing efforts must be permission-based.
"They should also require the merchant to engage in a dispute if information is used inappropriately," he says.
eBucks.com has several measures in place to ensure customers` privacy is protected.
"We accept that a merchant`s business is to sell products, not to build impenetrable security systems. We have therefore developed an online retail offering so that our customers have the opportunity to transact online in the knowledge that our security systems are state of the art and that we have a firmly entrenched privacy clause."
eBucks customers can use eBucks, or rands (if they have an FNB account) to purchase online using the eBucks online payment solution. This payment solution is available for use on the Web sites of certain online shopping partners such as NetFlorist and Incredible Connection. If a person uses the payment solution to pay for a purchase, their account details remain with eBucks.com and are therefore shielded from the merchant at all times.
"With the customer able to earn eBucks on their MTN cellphones, FNB accounts and spending at Arthur Kaplan Jewellers, eBucks makes it possible for customers without credit cards to spend online using their eBucks.
"And with over R100 million worth of eBucks out there, there`s a lot of spending to be done," Brown says.
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