TulipTools Internet Business Owners and Online Sellers Community

Quote:What's most important to consumers when making a purchase online? Personal identity. Consumers are taking more notice of their individual online security after a string of recent identity theft cases made major headlines. According to a recent survey by the University of Southern California's Center for the Digital Future, 61 percent of adult Americans said they were "very" or "extremely" concerned about the privacy of personal information when buying online, an increase from 47 percent in 2006. Prior to 2007, that number had been decreasing for the past six years.

So where do we, as consumers, really stand in 2008? The shopping Web sites we frequent know who we say we are, but not who we actually are. Various industry verticals have minimized risk here to a certain extent; however, none of them can provide 100 percent assurance. Therefore, in the coming year we will see a continued focus by criminals on the theft of identity information. In the consumer market, we need to be continuously cognizant of how, when and where this theft of our personal information can happen...

Quote:The number of Americans buying online has doubled in the last seven years. But the same study found the channel is still vastly underused due to fear; 75% percent of that same group say they do not like sending personal or credit card information over the Internet.

However, most security experts agree that consumers are at far greater risk of having their credit data stolen in-store than online.

“In-store transitions or point of sale transactions may lead in the threat area,” said Judd Rousseau of security firm Identity Theft 911. “The technolo­gies and tools needed to take or copy information is easier to get and use for point-of-sale transactions.”...