SOSA pushes for e-commerce safety

A Taipei-based non-profit organization (NGO) is calling for the establishment of a safe virtual environment to help promote the booming electronic commerce sector.

"The business potential extended through cyberspace is huge because it can easily reach many places in the world," said Hung Ho-ming (黃河明), chairman of the Secure Online Shopping Association (SOSA, 消費者電子商務協會), at a press luncheon yesterday.

Citing statistics compiled by the Institute for Information Industry (資策會), Hung said online shopping represents less than 1 percent of retail revenues in Taiwan, compared with a forecasted 7 percent in the US this year.

This indicates a massive potential for e-commerce development especially because the penetration ratio of asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) technology in this country is ranked No. 2 in the world, Hung added.

But the lack of secure online mechanisms and related regulations has left many Internet-based transaction disputes unresolved, slowing the development of e-commerce, Hung said.

"With the Internet applications reaching a higher level to cover merchandise transactions and service exchanges, the existence of a trustworthy mechanism has become all too important," he said.

To help reduce online fraud and boost consumers' confidence in online shopping, the four-year-old SOSA has been pushing for the use of a yellow trust mark, which is conferred on Internet-based busi-nesses that it has verified as being trustworthy vendors.

SOSA secretary-general Pan Jou-juan (潘兆娟) said the group has developed the policies espoused by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, SOSA into 10 principles, including information transparency, privacy policy and handling of transaction disputes, which it then uses as a checklist in reviewing applications for its trust mark.

Although the association only has 85 members, the inclusion of some famous corporations on the group's list has helped raise its popularity, Pan said.

China Airlines (華航), Yahoo-Kimo's Web site, Hewlett-Packard Taiwan Ltd and Eztravel.com are among those supporting SOSA's efforts to push for use of the trust mark.

Pan said SOSA has helped resolve around 20 online disputes and with the assistance from the Department of Commerce, it hopes to increase its membership to 100 by the year's end and be widely recognized by the public.

Hung said SOSA places high hopes on the next annual meeting of the fledgling Asia Trustmark Alliance, composed of NGOs from Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and Singapore, which is scheduled to be held in Taipei on Sept. 22.

Hung said the goal is to develop a global trust mark and online pacts in order to ensure secure cyber shopping at home and abroad.