1. Copyright -- One fine example is of course Google Books (above). They're doing a fine job bringing electronic books to the rest of the world, but unfortunately authors and publishers aren't so happy about that! It's such an irony that the width of the Internet is held back by legal issues, of all things, rather than pure technical limitations.
2. Security -- People steal credit card details online and buy things. And the worst part is, many credit card companies refuse to waive the costs incurred, so most of the time either the card owners or even the sellers have to bear the costs. Though, I've heard that American Express is one of the more generous banks willing to waive costs if you had your card stolen! =P
3. Trust -- Because of online theft, many people are unwilling to trust just any website. That's good for them cos it's safe, but it certainly isn't good for credible new websites who are legitimately trying to do business online. For instance, many people are unwilling to use any payment site except PayPal.
4. Monopoly -- Many of the pioneer online businesses are running monopolies. They're even going as far as trying to get patents! For instance, Amazon tried to patent it's "1-Click" online purchasing system 3 years ago.. thank goodness it didn't work! If it had, it would've made things very difficult for other businesses, and would've given Amazon an unfair advantage that it didn't even need!
5. Privacy -- Spyware: definitely as scary as it sounds! These little things track your surfing habits. It may be good if you're an avid online shopper and would rather these Spyware do your searching for you.. but for the rest of us, I'm sure it simply creeps us out just knowing that the websites we buy from are watching us! But interestingly, because of this, many anti-Spyware software companies have also sprung up online, such as Ad-Aware.
6. Exploitation -- Every website we go to promises that they won't sell our email addresses. But if that's really the case.. where do spammers get our email addresses from? That's something I'd just love to find out. Of course, there is absolutely nothing bad about receiving excessive emails because... well, the Internet has lots of space, and there's no paper wastage or anything. But doesn't it disturb you that you keep receiving emails from strangers, especially when they even seem TAILORED to you?
7. Viruses and Crackers -- We've all heard of them and we know what they do... but how do we defend ourselves against them?! That's another scary thing about e-business. You temporarily drop your Firewall level to buy/sell something.. and poof, here they come! And often you don't even know you got hit until something REALLY starts to fail... like your Operating System or even your hardware.
I know I sound very anti-ebusiness, but hey... trust me I'm not! Perhaps some other day, when I'm REALLY free, I'll list out all the pros of ebusiness as well. But meanwhile... all I have to say when you're spending money online is... BE CAREFUL!
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