Is the Internet a Good Shopping Tool?

Have you ever bought anything online? Of course, that may sound like a stupid question. With the number of department stores closing around the United States, people are now being forced to turn to the internet to make their purchases. However, there are others who actually enjoy shopping online instead of going to going to a department store to purchases the same thing. In fact, it can be cheaper to shop online. A lot of websites give a great discount for looking online. You need a new cell phone? Go to the provider’s website and get it absolutely no charge. You need school books that would cost you at least $100? Go to Amazon and find a slightly used book for $37. With the economy the way that it is, people are looking for any ways to save money, and so they are willing to wait the short term while the product is on route to his/her house.

But the million dollar question is: is it safe to shop online? You have to give a lot of personal information, such as: credit card number, name, address, phone numbers, etc. You open yourself to your identity and personal information to be used by someone else. A 2001 National Consumers League poll found that consumers’ feared the possibility of their credit card numbers stolen. It is actually the safest way to pay online, because the liability that you are responsible for is limited to $50 dollars under the Fair Credit Billing Act. And many credit-card companies have a $0 liability policy, which protects you from being accountable for any fraudulent purchases. Of course, there is always fine print. For example, MasterCard’s $0 liability policy only covers U.S.-issued cards, you must have no more than 1 disputed purchase in the last 12 months, and finally the account must be in good standing.

In this world, “eBay” has become like a verb as well as a way of life for many shopping enthusiasts, which use great resources for the online payment, an example of such payment services is; PayPal. Services like PayPal allow you to fund an online account and make payments from that account without exposing your real credit card or bank account information.

These types of services allow you to send money to anyone with an e-mail account, which make them useful for more than auction sites. These payment services have differing fraud protections. In order to dispute a purchase made with PayPal, you have to file a complaint within 30 days of the fraud. You of course, can still file a complaint with the credit card you used to fund your PayPal account.  However, your card's fraud policies may not cover third-party payment services. Because some credit companies view the initial funding of your account as the purchase you made on your credit card. This could mean that if PayPal can't get your money back for you, you might never recover those funds.

 These are a few things to keep in mind when you purchase things online. But here is a video clip about another great way to save money using the internet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4giyJRGnQIo&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjTDvKTEPVw

Until Next week,
Elizabeth

This blog is prepared by a paralegal student as a class project, without compensation. The content of this blog contains my opinion, and is offered for personal interest without warranty of any kind. Comments posted by others on this blog are the responsibility of the posters of those messages. The reader is solely responsible for verifying the content of this blog and any linked information. Content, sources, information, and links will most likely change over time. The content of this blog may not be construed as legal, medical, business or personal advice 

Banks and technology

Along with being a paralegal student and cashier at Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, I am a bank teller at a bank. Everyday I watch as people put money into their account, which is then managed by technology. You walk into the bank, give your money to the teller behind the line, where you lose sight of the money. You are then printed a receipt, which you must trust includes correct information. You wouldn't believe how many times a teller gives the wrong receipt to a customer, which would explain why balances and account numbers are not provided without proper identification. When you open an account, you usually recieve a little plastic card with a secret pin, which is your money. You want to buy something? Swipe your card/ input your numbers into the spaces (if shopping online) and press a few buttons, and VOILA! you have just been charged. Money has been taken out of your account. This actually causes more people to overdraft their accounts, because many people don't know how to balance a checkbook and they make too many purchases with money they think they have, when in reality they are already in the negative. This can be a huge problem for many people.

Now what about that little plastic card? What if you have a neighbor who watches for your mail, because they are snooping or maybe they are intending to be kind and bring it in for you. They see that little envelope, which anyone cn tell holds something extremely valuable. And most people know that the pin will arrive a few days later. That same person keeps an eye out for the mail everyday and finally gets their hands on the pin. BAM! they now have instant access to any money that you put into your account. And unfortunately mny people don't watch their account and so do not realize that money is being taken out.

And finally, what about those machines that people use to get money, ATM's. Everyday the tellers go out to the ATM to make sure that it is running properly. While doing this, they must check the machine to make sure that there are no cameras on the machine. Now that is a scary thought! someone places a camera and scimmer on the machine, they get your card number as it goes into the machine and the pin number as your fingers go across the keyboards. Another way someone has access to your money. I've heard that many stores have had similar issues. An employee at a Walmart changed out the credit/debit swipe machines with a fake one that would store all card numbers as well as the pin that goes with it and they had instant access to the money.

Now, I know that I have used the same words over and over again "they have instant access to the money," but these are only a few ways that a person can get money from your account without your knowledge, or at least immediately. I didn't mention the shady employees, the fake on-line vendors, etc.

But for now, I hope that you enjoy the video located at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Zq1oIq87pY&feature=related

Until next week,
Elizabeth

This blog is prepared by a paralegal student as a class project, without compensation. The content of this blog contains my opinion, and is offered for personal interest without warranty of any kind. Comments posted by others on this blog are the responsibility of the posters of those messages. The reader is solely responsible for verifying the content of this blog and any linked information. Content, sources, information, and links will most likely change over time. The content of this blog may not be construed as legal, medical, business or personal advice 

Is technology destroying the need for teachers?

I thought that I would discuss a very big issue that has taken over many of my family discussions over the years: is technology hurting the education world. Many people that I talk to are scared that the use of technology will destroy the need for teachers in a classroom. But, I feel that technology is not necessarily destroying the education of our future generations, but helping them.

Through the use of technology there has been a change in the teacher-student relationship. Students are learning the importance of communication with others. The student is no longer playing a passive role in his/her learning, but an active role. Teachers are now able to provide resources for students to find information on their own instead of just giving the information to the students, which teaches students the importance of research. As a paralegal student at Sinclair, there is never-ending research to be done, and in the paralegal/legal world every second costs a rather high price. So if a person enters into the legal world without years of researching practice, they would be completely overwhelmed. This tool (research) is not just used in the legal profession, but it seemed like a good example, most businesses require some kind of research. But while it is the student doing the actual research, the teacher is able to walk around the classroom and answer questions or point the student in the correct path.  The role also changes in that today more students have become more knowledgeable about the different tools technology has to offer, that he/she can teach the teacher different things.

But there is another upside to technology in the educational world. Teacher and students are now able to access information that has recently changed right then and there. If there is a major event that has happened today, the teacher can pull up the channel on a TV or even using the internet in order to give the students the information right as it occurs. It used to be that they could read articles printed days later or wait until the information is provided in history books before trying to teach about it.

And so although, there may be many fears about the constant decrease in the need for teachers in a classroom, there is still a need for them to direct the students down the correct path.

You can read more about the effects of technology on classrooms and its students at www.20ed.gov/pubs/EdReformStudies/EdTech/effectsstudents.html

Until next week,
Elizabeth

This blog is prepared by a paralegal student as a class project, without compensation. The content of this blog contains my opinion, and is offered for personal interest without warranty of any kind. Comments posted by others on this blog are the responsibility of the posters of those messages. The reader is solely responsible for verifying the content of this blog and any linked information. Content, sources, information, and links will most likely change over time. The content of this blog may not be construed as legal, medical, business or personal advice 

Movies and Technology

I have to admit that it was the movie industry that really made me realize that technology has played a major role in the damage of several businesses. But looking back, it is hard to believe that in 1977, the beginning of video rental stores, people in the movie industry fought the rental of movie cassettes, because they feared that it would hurt the selling of those films. If only those people saw how technology has changed, and what damage it has caused the film industry.

What used to be a very popular place to go, to get 2 hours of entertainment in our homes, Blockbuster, has now gone bankrupt. This is what made Jessica Vascellaro, Deputy Bureau Chief of Wall Street Journal’s Media and Marketing Bureau, state that “Technology is killing the video-rental store-and a piece of American culture with it.” Because people enjoy the delivery of what they want to them, they have turned to Netflix and on demand. You don’t have to get into your car and drive to a packed video-rental store to find that the movie/TV show that you were hoping to find, has been rented out, resulting in a wasted trip. Although Blockbuster has just now announced their bankruptcy, we have seen a change in the video-rental stores industry for the past decade. Just in 2007, the number of stores had decreased from 23,036 (in 1997) to 16,237. Video stores have been described as inconvenient.  

Although video stores have seen more damage, they are not the only area of the movie industry that has been damaged in the technology craze. It is now just as easy to go online and download a brand new released film to be watched for free. The act of viewing the film online, for free, illegally is damaging the revenue that the film studio would receive from the sales of the tickets to see said film. But why would people want to go to the movies, pay a high price for a ticket, just to end up watching a movie that he/she absolutely hated? Also, why wouldn’t people want to watch the movie online in order to see if he/she liked it enough to pay the even higher price to buy the movie?

In order to really get a feel for these arguments about the damage that technology has caused the movie industry, you really need to visit: "How Piracy Threatens the Movie Industry" at http://www.helium.com/items/1023440-how-piracy-threatens-the-movie-industry
as well as, watch the short movie "Watch digits: Technology Killed the Video Store via MarketWatch Online" at http://www.yidio.com/digits-technology-killed-the-video-store/id/2479605106.
Hope you enjoy!
Until next time,
Elizabeth

This blog is prepared by a paralegal student as a class project, without compensation. The content of this blog contains my opinion, and is offered for personal interest without warranty of any kind. Comments posted by others on this blog are the responsibility of the posters of those messages. The reader is solely responsible for verifying the content of this blog and any linked information. Content, sources, information, and links will most likely change over time. The content of this blog may not be construed as legal, medical, business or personal advice