Online behaviors like things like checking prices and repeatedly looking at products are exploited by companies that can adjust prices to bring in customers at the right time, a digital expert who advocates new consumer protection measures has warned.
Christine Ryfa, a law professor at the University of Reading who specializes in consumer rights in the digital age, said some technology applications are good for customers, but some of the “frills” of this new way of shopping are harmful.
She said that all of our moves and likes are tracked online and used as a weapon by companies, which is widespread in the industry.
According to Professor Rifa, companies use a variety of methods that are mainly focused on discovering and understanding what a consumer does online, but essentially every action a consumer takes online leaves a digital footprint that companies can use to gain insight into consumer behavior.
This may include tracking how long a consumer has viewed a particular product on a website, or multiple visits within a short period of time, which can help measure interest and willingness to pay.
“Retailers can then adjust their behavior, such as offering a discount on a subsequent visit, to entice the consumer to buy the item. Similarly, this type of data can be used to infer what similar consumers want to do and how best to get hooked or when to offer discounts,” said Prof Rifa.
Her comments come after a March report by the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, a think tank, that says consumer rights need a digital overhaul.
“Consumers are being exploited more than ever. In a dematerialized world where bad faith is hard to detect and even harder (to prove), consumers struggle to assert their rights and obtain adequate redress, as well as (stop) harmful behavior,” she said.
“Consumers have no say in how the market works.”
Professor Rifa said that consumer protection laws in most countries are designed to enable customers to understand and protect their rights.
However, in the digital age, they believed that machines were too smart for humans and consumers could not stand up for their rights.
“Lawmakers also suggested that consumers could vote with their feet or claim damages if they were wronged. This is not true. Consumers are rarely aware of their rights, or rarely able to enforce them,” says Prof Rifa.
She noted that most consumers would not complain or go to court.
“If someone charges £20 for an electronic device because the algorithm can determine that I can and will pay for it because I need the goods quickly, will the consumer go to court to get £20 back?
“It’s not worth the time or effort as long as the consumer knows they’ve overpaid. However, the trader made a lot of money from it,” she said.
Professor Rifa believes it’s time for companies to behave decently, not for consumers to see how they are being deceived.
She added that the environmental costs of e-commerce “are of concern because digital tools are not used for sustainability, they are harming the planet.
“The story was about how e-commerce, or digital tools in general, can drive efficiency and how increasingly powerful technology can drive sustainability,” said Prof Rifa.
“However, I can’t help but think that the exponential generation of data (now we all take so many photos on our phones, stream movies on the train, post almost every step we take on social media) and the culture of buying consumer goods should almost immediately (as opposed to deliberate trips on Saturday afternoon for everything you need) can only lead to negative environmental consequences.
In the UK, the digital divide is widening between those who cannot afford better deals online, Professor Reef says.
“The loyalty penalty is paid by the less fortunate, who are often unable to use comparison shopping sites and search the Internet for better deals,” she said.
The comments come after Spain, which last week hosted an international conference on the digital economy hosted by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Gran Canaria, launched a new initiative to bring fashion and technology together for more sustainable digital innovation. . said the Minister of Digitalization of the country.
Carme Artigas said that “fashion technology” will create nodes to create “smart clothes” in a public-private alliance between the two sectors.
The idea was not only to achieve a greater digital transformation in the fashion industry, but also to increase social awareness among consumers and manufacturers.
“We want to study clothes that change temperature, bras that can detect breast cancer, and T-shirts that can change logos. Everyone has an imagination to explore,” she shared. I in an interview with the OECD conference.
“We want to add social responsibility. It can’t be that young people order ten things and send nine back. The (environmental) costs are enormous. These gains come with a price.”
Ms Artigas added: “We want manufacturers to say that if you return just five, you will receive a five percent discount. Amazon already says that we give discounts if you reduce the number of returns.
She assumes that in the future people will buy purely digital products.
“We only want to consume 100% digital products. Maybe we’ll buy a house in the metaverse or a digital piece of art,” she said.
Source: I News
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