There have been long and loud complaints about spamming. As with telemarketing calls, many consumers are frustrated with being forced to deal with so many unwanted messages. Is this an ethical issue or simply a practical matter? Either way, the marketing team must assess the viability of spamming programs.

At a more dramatic level, cookie technology allows a website to look into consumers' computers to see which sites they have visited. Is this ethical? Should an Internet company be allowed to gather this information? Should the company be allowed to sell the information to other companies? Answers fall into two categories: (1) Legal and (2) Moral. While it may still be legal to collect and transfer consumers information in this manner, the ethical issue remains.

What has really surprised me while I was reading some days ago about the numerous ways these companies are using to bluff the consumers in order to make few bucks. One way for instance is that you start getting all these disturbing commercial emails which you do not know anything about to your inbox. Most of these emails will mention in the bottom something like - - If you do not wish to continue receiving further emails from us please click on the following link to unsubscribe - - . Then you proceed and click on the provided link to stop receiving these emails. However, when you go to check your inbox the following day; you see the number of junk or spam emails have been doubled or perhaps troubled.

This is one of the several non ethical techniques such companies use to trick Internet users or consumers. In reality when you click on those links to unsubscribe; you will actually confirm to this company that you email address is valid and you are checking it regularly. As a result, your email address will be sold to other companies because it is an active one which means more spam and unwanted emails. In this case, the best thing you can do is to ignore those types of emails and avoid clicking on any links they provide in the content.

Marketing professionals will continue to face the need for quality information. They must balance this need with the ethical ramifications of invading privacy rights and customer sensibilities. Failing to do so may have long term implications for both the company and those who use the Internet to shop for products and services.