by Effie Moore Salem

Created on: August 06, 2010   Last Updated: August 09, 2010

Responsible online marketing is becoming an ever increasing business problem. Business dealings and marketing in general, on and off the Internet, often raise questions about ethics. Is it right to advertise so aggressively? Should not flaws in merchandise and in facts presented, be open for inspection? And, the big question, especially concerning the use of email, how ethical is spam? That is easily answered from the receiver's end, it is a not ethical to click once and send thousands of spam to unsuspecting customers. Once an online mail box has been contaminated with spam, it is hard to eradicate.

How do they get our name, is often asked. It all can be traced back to the web site owners who have programmed their site to make use of cookies, those tiny bits of information on those who visit the site, to retrieve information, and of course, the email. This method is not all bad. If the site is one that the visitor, or shopper, sanctions and uses all the time, the information gathered is helpful to both the shopper or information gatherer, and saves times. But it is the persistent aggravations that won't go away, no matter what is done to eradicate them, that makes them unethical.

Ethical and responsible sites that send emails will make it extremely easy for the people not interested in their message, to be taken off the site. One simple little effort and they will be erased. Yet, there are many sites that don't bother with this precaution. Another way the more ethical web sites do business is to send the email and after two or three such mailings, if there is no response, the non compliant customer gets  automatically marked off the list.

And ethics concerns the searcher also. The way they use the web site that they search out for information, means the different between responsible, ethical, use of the information or it means the wrong use. As an example, when writers search for information, they have certain rights when using the information, and they had best align themselves with these rights. A very small amount of what someone else has written can be copied and placed in between quotation marks, and properly assigned to the author. To do less is being unethical.

Another way of giving credit where credit is due, is to read what is written and put the information in one's own words while still crediting the author who helped get the facts straight by placing their online address somewhere within the article. The best practice is to research several

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