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Newsletter 22 June 2005
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<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>< In this issue: <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>< *************************************************** We have completed 30 of 80 interviews about people’s handling of money and use of the Internet The interviews are being transcribed and introduced into N6, a computer program for qualitative research. Some of them have been coded broadly. We will pause in our interviewing and complete the coding, followed by analysis along the broad themes that have emerged. This still has to be honed, but the themes are falling into the following broad areas: - People feel the need to strike a balance between
personal, joint and sometimes family money. We have some paths ahead now on the two research streams: - We will seek out people who use the Internet
and do not use Internet banking to explore issues of security further.
The following areas arising from the projects are being developed by Banking and E-commerce researchers ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Security is one of the main concerns of banks. People, however, who use Internet banking as a matter of habit, do not talk about security. There is evidence that individuals will spend very little time and effort to find out about their privacy rights when dealing online. We are exploring how to provide simple privacy protection for users while at the same time ensuring strong identity management practices. A legal regulatory environment for handling personal information now exists in many countries, including Australia. How can an Internet business manage the collection, use and disclosure of personal information most effectively in a global environment? ----------------------------------------------------------------------- There is a tension between customers’ perception of money as personal and the impersonal nature of Internet transactions. The challenge for banks is to personalize relationships on and off the Internet. People like to separate different kinds of money from each other such as grocery transactions from mortgage and so on. We suggest that a structure that helps keep the different kinds of joint money into a single “pocketed account”, will reduce the risks of Internet banking, and help the bank to keep more of a customer’s business. There is a generational change in the meanings of independence, jointness and interdependence and hence a change in the balance and significance of joint and personal accounts. We will explore whether the relationship between management and control of money has changed with Internet banking. It appears that the younger generation, including couples, singles and parents with young children are more frequent users of the internet. People with low income fall into three discrete groups – people currently on a low income but hope to make more money (e.g. students); people who had a higher income but are now on Centrelink benefits; and people who have always been on low income. In the last group, there is little use of the Internet, a greater use of cash, and the main issue with banking is the issue of avoiding or managing debt. Microfinance in Australia focuses on the provision of small loans for the purchase of white goods. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Small businesses that conduct business on the Internet carry the financial burden when Internet customers commit fraud. It is important they have better strategies for identifying who their customers are and how to avoid financial loss. *************************************************** Carmen Gould recently submitted her PhD within the School of Management at RMIT University. She holds an Honours degree in Quality Management from Salford University, UK. Carmen’s research interests relate to Internet privacy and e-commerce, and she has had a number of publications in these areas. *************************************************** Dora is in her late 30’s – early 40’s and lives with a de facto partner with her two children from a previous marriage. Her parents are dead and she is not close to either of her two brothers. She and her partner are both academics. Dora and her partner maintain separate accounts, although they do have one joint account with a nil balance. She pays for groceries and household bills most of the time; he pays the mortgage. Their mortgage is through the Uni Super Fund in joint names. She has no investments. Dora is divorced. She and her husband also had separate accounts, although each was a signatory to the others’ account. Her husband contributes to the upbringing and education of the children and he is a signatory to her current bank account in case something happens to the children. Dora used to do her banking on the internet but the scares last year relating to phishing made her stop using the service. She pays most of her bills through BPay and withdraws money through ATMs. She would go inside a bank about once a year. She had a problem with her VISA card recently while on an overseas teaching trip when someone else used her card details so is still concerned about security. She has bought a few things on the internet (tickets or books through Amazon) but is wary of it. Her partner generally purchases items for her. She doesn’t have many privacy concerns, only security ones, although she dislikes receiving unsolicited material through the post. Health is the only possible area for privacy concerns. She wouldn’t discuss financial matters with her remaining family. Their next financial commitment is to buy a new house and to keep their current house as an investment. She will research lenders on the internet and then will decide who to talk to. She and her partner might consider a joint account then for shared expenses. She is likely to go back to internet banking. Not interested in using her mobile for banking. *************************************************** Professor Margaret Jackson and Associate Professor Mohini Singh gave a presentation on issues related to virtual communities at RMIT on Monday 20th June 2005. Virtual communities are defined as online interactive groups with a shared purpose and with policies (or rules). They are characterised by active participation, shared resources, appreciation of technology, shared knowledge, reciprocity and significant cooperation via the Internet. Three virtual communities- ninemsn.com.au, ecoustics.com and BarnesandNoble.com - had been examined by the authors. There are a number of legal areas which virtual communities should be aware but the key areas are: Defamation Defamation and copyright infringement are potential areas for legal liability for virtual communities particularly when they offer discussion forums and message boards. Virtual communities have to decide whether they will monitor the content of such forums and boards. If they do monitor (or state they will monitor), they may be held to be liable as publishers for defamatory material and for authorising copyright infringement. If they choose to monitor, then it is crucial that this task is performed regularly and thoroughly. It is important, too, that virtual communities get users of their sites to agree to the terms of use, particularly when offering users the right to post information. A simple method of ensuring that the terms have been accepted is by providing an ‘I agree’ button for users to click before proceeding further into the website. *************************************************** * ACM Workshop on Digital Rights Management * First International Conference on Digital Rights Management:
Technologies, Issues, Challenges and Systems, Sydney, Australia,
31 October - 2 November 2005 * QualIT2005 - Challenges for Qualitative Research ----------------------------------------------------------------------- "Yesterday, MasterCard announced the theft of 40 million credit cards. ... Experts say that this is the worst case of data theft in IT history."
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