Thursday, January 4, 2001

eSocializing Outpaces eCommerce

During the holiday season, the Internet was used by more Americans to celebrate and socialize than it was to make purchases. A new survey by the Pew Internet and American Life Project shows that more people used the Internet during the holidays to arrange get-togethers and send holiday e-greeting cards than to buy holiday gifts online. And a substantial number used the Internet to track down new ideas for holiday celebrations, including tips on holiday crafts and recipes or to learn more about holiday religious traditions.

Here are the basic figures from the Pew Internet Project study:

• 53% of Internet users (over 51 million people) sent emails during the holiday season to relatives and friends to discuss the holidays or make plans.
• 32% of Internet users (over 30 million people) sent e-greeting cards to loved ones and friends.
• 24% of Internet users went to the Web to get information on crafts and recipes, and to get other ideas for holiday celebrations.
• 14% of Internet users researched religious information and traditions.

By comparison, 24% of Internet users purchased gifts online. Some 45% of Internet users said they went online to get gift ideas and 32% said they used the Web to compare prices.

“During the holidays, online Americans were more inclined to use the Internet for social purposes than commercial purposes,” says Lee Rainie, Director of the Pew Internet Project. “People used email to connect, catch up, and make plans. They used the Web as a vast resource to help them get new ideas to enrich their celebrations.”

The phone survey ran from November 22 to December 21 and involved 2,038 Internet users.

Canadian Cyber Laws Among the Strongest
The ability of the Canadian government to prosecute cyber criminals with certainty is much stronger than stated in a recent report, according to McConnell International LLC, a global policy and technology management consulting firm. The revised assessment shows that Canadian law effectively covers the major categories of cyber crime.

"Canada is a leader in the international fight against cyber crime, and the uncertainty of its legal remedies against cyber criminals was overstated in our earlier report," said Bruce McConnell, the firm's president. "After technical discussions with the Canadian Department of Justice, we have revised the report. Cyber criminals should beware of attacking computers in Canada."

"Cyber crime is a growing global dilemma, and we hope that more countries will follow Canada's lead by updating their laws to ensure criminals are not getting ahead of law enforcement in this battle," said Harris N. Miller, President of the World Information Technology and Services Alliance (WITSA), a sponsor of the report.

The revised report shows that Canada has updated its statutory laws to cover seven of the ten types of crimes: data interception, data modification, data theft, network interference, network sabotage, unauthorized access, and virus dissemination. For computer-related fraud, cases have been prosecuted successfully using terrestrial laws, effectively updating the laws in those categories. In addition, Canadian officials have strong confidence that existing laws provide sufficient coverage against the remaining two categories, aiding and abetting cyber crimes and computer-related forgery. The revised report ranks Canada among the top countries that have fully or substantially updated their laws, along with Australia, Estonia, India, Japan, Mauritius, Peru, Philippines, Turkey, and United States.

The report, Cyber Crime . . . and Punishment? Archaic Laws Threaten Global Information, released on 7 December 2000, analyzed the following countries: Albania, Australia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burundi, Canada, Chile, China, Cuba, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Estonia, Ethiopia, Fiji, France, Gambia, Hungary, Iceland, India, Iran, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Malaysia, Malta, Mauritius, Moldova, Morocco, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Romania, South Africa, Spain, Sudan, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, Vietnam, Yugoslavia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe to determine whether their laws had been updated to cover the ten types of cyber crimes.

"The report's underlying conclusions, that most countries have not updated their laws, and that companies should rely on self-protection as their first defense against cyber crimes, remain," McConnell said. "Only if other countries follow the examples of the leaders will the world become a safe place for the conduct of e-government and e-business."