Although no one company has emerged as the dominant provider, several are competing to become the payment managers of the information superhighway. In most cases the sensitive data is kept securely off line, and can be retrieved in traditional ways after the transaction. Remember, large firms have different and more urgent security concerns than smaller enterprises. Knowing the risks and the facts about Internet commerce can be your answer to making the information superhighway a valuable and safe new business tool. The Internet is, fundamentally, a commercial enterprise.
Private companies run computers that run the system, and users pay fees to get aboard.
That fact, however, does not make cyberspace wide-open territory for capitalism. Violating this unwritten rule can get you ostracized and your messages returned unread. Taylor says that anytime he receives a commercial message through a newsgroup, he returns an angry message to the sender and electronically blocks out any future mail from the offender. The tricky part about the restriction is that standards vary from newsgroup to newsgroup. Some business-oriented sites may allow more leeway in terms of discussing products and services.