How safe is safe?

We all say shopping online is safe, convenient and easier but how safe is safe, how safe are these sites? Every day we here of situations of how people fall into the hands of fraudsters and how private information is being made public. Many social networks have experienced scams, identity theft and privacy issues; not too long facebook faced some privacy issues. I have heard of cases when people close down their social pages to avoid the situation of identity theft. Is this now the solution to being safe? By staying off social networks or not shopping online or even saying the Lord’s Prayer several times before transacting online. Some of us even look at the security trust seals such as VeriSign Secured, a golden padlock on the web address link before purchasing an item or releasing personal details online, but is this enough?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124949972905908593.html

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/magazine-archive/2010/june/electronics-computers/social-insecurity/overview/index.htm

Interactive Community, the New Norm of Businesses

It is very common for most companies that have a presence on the Internet to have an interactive community, but what bothers me is that people tend to say that not all companies should have these communities, I also believe that but it got me thinking about how do customers communicate their needs to these companies. Before the existence of the Internet, companies had suggestion/comment cards and boxes and some still do have those even with their presence on the Internet and still have an interactive community. An example is FIU’s business school; despite its interactive community site they also have a suggestion box in the building.

Another question that baffles me is who advises these companies whether to have or not have an interactive community on the Internet. Is it imperative for the company to have a website and also an interactive community? As someone once said, your “community” cannot go on vacation just because you are or your company is on break. Experts or advisers have refused to think about how necessary it would be for the company. No one thinks about not having an interactive community, for instance a movie that is not yet in theatres have an interactive community already. What questions or comments do they expect viewers to post? I believe this has become a wasteful spending for companies.