What developments will hinder the growth of electronic commerce?
The growth of electronic commerce (“e-commerce”) is likely to be hindered if consumers continue to have doubts about the security of personal information that they are entrusting to electronic merchants. A 1997 Ernst & Young survey of U.S. Internet shopping, for example, found that almost 70 percent of those who had not yet made a purchase on the Internet were uncomfortable sending their credit card data over the Net. 1 Still more recently, a survey by the Pew Research center found that 61 percent of those who had never made an online purchase cited credit card security as a reason. 2 Continued concerns about the security of e-commerce transactions would be undesirable at a time when, according to one recent prediction, fewer than 5 percent of e-commerce sites on the World Wide Web (“Web”) will show a profit during the next 12 to 18 months. 3 While many factors are likely to influence the continuing growth and direction of e-commerce, government agencies should take note of these consu
