The sense of anonymity that the Internet is able to provide its users has its own advantages and disadvantages.
This ambiguity has provided us with a certain level of security, but at the same time, it has also presented a dilemma that has plagued the online community ever since the Internet's conception.
These days, we frequently encounter terms like cyber bullying or Internet trolling.
These terms are normally associated with individuals who use the anonymity provided by the Internet to bully or treat others in a specific online community with disregard and impertinence.
In the online business sector, specifically in Internet marketing, proper ethics and etiquette have been a major concern for the longest time.
For businesses that value their image and reputation in the eyes of their consumers, Internet marketing ethics is a central factor.
Unfortunately though, some online marketers seem to ignore the proper online ethics and would rather focus on aggressive and devious marketing methods that they believe can generate more profit for their business.
But any successful online marketer will tell you that this is not always the case.
The absence of proper Internet marketing ethics can hurt any business in a variety of ways.
Bad, or inappropriate marketing techniques, may come in a variety of faces, shapes and sizes, figuratively speaking.
One of the most negative marketing tactics being employed today is perhaps the inaccurate representation or perversion of a company's product or service.
Even though this is not proper ethics, it is, however, rather common in the online marketing scene.
Exaggerating or overstating a product or service's capacity is a popular marketing strategy that many marketers are blatantly using these days.
Unfortunately, a lot of people still fall for such ambiguous advertising techniques.
Other widely used unethical marketing campaigns are pop-up ads, pop-unders, and phony dialogue boxes.
When you open a specific website, sometimes, an ad will appear in a new smaller window on top of your main browser.
This is known as a pop-up ad.
Pop-unders, on the other hand, will appear underneath or behind your main browser window.
In most cases, you won't even notice them until you close your browser.
Fake dialogue boxes, unlike pop-up ads, will attempt to deceive the user into answering a simple yes or no question.
It won't matter what your answer is, though.
Once you click either yes or no, you will be immediately directed to the marketer's website.
Although annoying and extremely unethical, these types of marketing techniques are very common.
But that is not the worst part.
In some cases, these pop-up ads and fake dialogue boxes are being used by hackers and data phishing crooks to install hidden software into your computer that will allow them to gather specific information, like which websites you frequent, the products or service that you often buy online, and/or even your personal data.
These marketing tactics are not only unethical, they're borderline criminal.
When it comes to Internet marketing, there is a fine line between aggressive advertising and fraudulent marketing methods.
It's no surprise that some people would go to great lengths just to make money.
But if you run a legitimate online business that you would want to succeed in the future, it is better to observe proper Internet marketing ethics and wait for potential clientele to come to you than be an explicit and overly aggressive marketer and drive away all your consumers in the long run.