Articles by Paul A. Greenberg

Online consumers' privacy and protection are coming under close scrutiny in Washington, D.C. this week, as a number of government officials have apparently come to believe that the industry may never be able to regulate itself First, Federal Trade Commission (FTC) chairman Robert Pitofsky said Wednesday that identity theft is hampering the full gro...

Data protection negotiations between the U.S. and the European Union took a promising turn Tuesday when EU negotiator John Mogg announced that he will recommend the approval of a "safe harbor" agreement by EU institutions and member states The agreement would enable U.S. industries to conduct business with European firms under strict data privacy c...

IBM announced Monday that it has signed agreements to further its wireless e-commerce strategies with seven leading wireless and Internet companies in the U.S. and Europe The seven companies, Nokia, Motorola, Palm Inc., Cisco Systems, Inc., Intel Corp., Ericsson and Symbian Ltd. will work with IBM to develop and market integrated products for wirel...

Microsoft Corp. and Andersen Consulting announced an estimated $1 billion (US$) joint venture today to provide midsize to large-scale customers with e-commerce applications built on the Microsoft enterprise platform and Windows 2000 operating system Windows 2000, so far, has reportedly received only a luke-warm reception from Information Technology...

Instead of moving closer to a consensus on the issue of Internet taxation, the Advisory Commission on Electronic Commerce (ACEC) appears to be approaching deadlock as individual U.S. states discuss taking the matter into their own hands The panel, which was commissioned by the U.S. Congress, has firmly divided itself into two factions. Panel chief ...

Only months after forging a shaky entrance into online banking with its WingspanBank.com, Bank One Corp. has announced a new initiative to deliver money to users via secure e-mail The program, called eMoneyMail, is hardly groundbreaking. Online banking firm X.com already has a similar service, and money transfer services like Western Union and the ...

Wall Street was set abuzz Wednesday morning by rumors of a possible settlement of the ongoing Microsoft antitrust trial The Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft has been jockeying back and forth over a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) since early November, when U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson ruled that Microsoft effe...

Newly-released research from The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) reveals that a strikingly high online purchase failure rate and fear of online fraud are preventing a sizable number of online shoppers from returning to the Web The study, "Winning the Online Consumer: Insights Into Online Consumer Behavior," shows that while 28 percent of attempted on...

General Electric Company (NYSE:GE), which is already established as a major online player, has launched an electronic commerce division to tap into the burgeoning business-to-business (B2B) market. GE Information Services has been considered a major competitor for IBM in the area of trading systems between companies that order, ship and track supplies and products...

Spanish bank Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) and Spanish ISP Terra Networks announced a $2.4 billion (US$) merger today that will create a global Internet banking group with Irish Internet-only bank First-e The Spanish companies intend to merge First-e with their recently-developed Uno-e venture to create an Internet banking group known as U...

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has intensified government scrutiny of online consumer privacy by announcing that it will survey U.S. commercial Web sites about how personal consumer data is collected and used The FTC said that the survey will include a random sample from a list of the busiest sites on the World Wide Web, as compiled by Nie...

Online travel agency and Microsoft spin-off Expedia.com reported Wednesday that it will record $4 to $6 million (US$) in third quarter losses to cover fraudulent credit card purchases made on its Web site Expedia, which reports gross bookings in excess of $1 billion and net revenues of $85 million, has an agreement with the airline companies to pay...

Venerable American retailer Sears, Roebuck and Co. announced Monday that it will join with $50 billion (US$) French retailer Carrefour and software giant Oracle Corp. to form a global business-to-business (B2B) marketplace for the retail industry The Hoffman Estates, Illinois-based Sears will share a majority stake in the new GlobalNetExchange vent...

Having generated one quarter of its January passenger revenues from online sales, Southwest Airlines projected Monday that its 2000 e-commerce revenues will top $1 billion (US$) For the fourth quarter of 1999, Southwest reported that revenues from its Web site exceeded $250 million, up 140 percent over the same quarter in 1998.

A number of software company owners, corporate executives and other key players in the technology landscape strongly encouraged U.S. governors to keep better pace with the new economy and electronic commerce at a weekend meeting of the National Governors' Association (NGA) in Washington, D.C The common theme was that in order to remain economically...

In an effort to solidify its position as a major player in wireless electronic commerce, Motorola, Inc. unveiled plans this week to introduce technology that will make all of its mobile phones Internet ready by the end of this year The company, which some industry observers had virtually written off just over a year ago, is taking aggressive steps ...

Big Three auto manufacturers General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and DaimlerChrysler stunned the automotive and e-commerce worlds Friday by agreeing to form a single online business-to-business (B2B) trading network The companies said that the as yet unnamed trading network will be a separate company, have a new URL, and may be accompanied by an I...

Virginia Governor James Gilmore, the head of the Advisory Commission on Electronic Commerce (ACEC), said Wednesday afternoon that he is not backing off his opposition to taxation on the Internet as was widely reported Speaking at a luncheon in Boston, Massachusetts, Gilmore reiterated his strong opposition to Internet taxation. "I'm in a minority b...

Hot on the heels of the acquisition of business-to-business (B2B) software provider Sterling Commerce by telecom giant SBC Communications, two other former "Baby Bells" have jumped into similar waters BellSouth has unveiled a plan with Commerce One to create a B2B marketplace for the telecommunications industry worldwide, while US West has cut a de...

District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson dealt Microsoft Corp. a significant blow in its ongoing antitrust trial yesterday by comparing the software company to John D. Rockefeller's 19th century Standard Oil monopoly that was broken up by the U.S. government some 90 years ago "Mr. Rockefeller had fee simple control over his oil," Jackson said in the ...