A recent study from Consumer Reports' Digital Lab reveals that 96 percent of Americans agree that more should be done to protect consumer privacy. But don't expect to see a whole new alternative Internet emerging any year soon. Instead, you will see a focus on software offerings built around privacy and security rather than hardware.

This year's revised federal tax code plus new Covid-19 initiatives provide additional incentives for startup companies, as well as small and medium-sized businesses. If you received a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan, you may qualify to have that indebtedness forgiven; and other tax incentives this year provide new deductions to lower your tax bill.

With an increasing amount of workers turning to part-time, freelance, and contract work for a variety of reasons, a growing number of businesses are now based on the gig economy model. The E-Commerce Times spoke with several experts familiar with the ins and outs of the gig economy to find out what's evolving and changing in this burgeoning field.

Social media has become the home of fake news, unscrupulous advertising, places to dole out abuse, and disseminate alternative history. Let's talk about what is likely to happen to social media companies; and how they might work to prevent that outcome. We'll close with the product of the week, a category-busting new smartwatch from OnePlus.

Certainly, the pandemic has caused some upheavals in American business -- and it's true that the record of progress in economics is littered with creative destruction. But the absolutist prognostications about the future of digital commerce taking over the world made me think "here we go again." Trees don't grow to the moon, retrenchment is common.

Consumers and marketers alike see social media outlets as a middle ground between selling and buying. Now that shoppers have grown used to seeing product placements and promotions on social media, it is a natural next step for them to want to make a purchase without going to another platform or branded website.

A rich cache of data on some 533 million Facebook users was posted to a hacker forum over the weekend and is available to download for practically free. In a statement provided to TechNewsWorld by Facebook, the company said it is confident the posted information is old data that originated from a weakness in its contact importer feature that was discovered and fixed in August 2019.

Even the most customer-centric businesses can overestimate their performance or miss the broad trends in customer behavior. That is why NICE inContact conducts annual surveys that track the customer experience from the perspective of businesses and consumers. CRM Buyer discussed the recent findings and related issues in more detail with the company's CEO Paul Jarman.

When technology is advancing very rapidly, the leading providers of an evolving class of products are on very different pages. I'm talking about Cisco and Microsoft -- and while neither's approach is wrong, neither is complete -- and together they can build what's needed for our hybrid workplace future. Let's talk about the advantages of a simulated workplace done right, and we'll close with the product of the week, a new graphics card from AMD.

Engaging in disaster recovery requires a company to think about many things, but despite the long checklists that are created to accomplish DR, there are some areas that frequently get overlooked in business continuity and disaster recovery planning. With this in mind, it is imperative to address all areas of concern before a disaster strikes, not during or after the event.

With most workers continuing to work remotely, CRM has become an important tool for managing relationship risk. Financial firms have to deal with market and operational risk, consumer retailers have to focus on supply chain risk, and all companies have to keep an eye on economic risk. Relationship risk is no different, and the role of the CRM is right at the center.

Major information technology providers opposed to the broadening of class action litigation related to consumer protections have taken their case to the U.S. Supreme Court. The companies are hoping the court will strike down a lower court ruling which makes it easier for consumers to file class action suits. The tech companies may not have to wait too long for a decision.

One of the most successful direct-to-consumer shopping outlets for China-based vendors outside of China's own Alibaba e-commerce platform is Amazon. This trend has been accelerating for years. China-based sellers represented 75 percent of new sellers on Amazon in January, according to a new report. Since March 2020, more than half of new Amazon sellers in the U.S. are from China.

A report from the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation called on the U.S. government to take an active role in promoting industrial competitiveness, and to formulate an advanced industry and technology strategy, which should include a set of policies and programs explicitly designed to support specific industries and technologies.

Collaboration between employees, teams, and clients is more important than ever before, and new technologies and platforms are available to facilitate communication and group work. The E-Commerce Times checked in with experts in collaboration software and technologies to hear more about how people are now working together, both remotely and in person.

As we slowly climb out of the Covid anis horribilis, advocates of the new normal (whatever that is) may wish to temper their prognostications about working from home or working from anywhere. While those are good ideas, and the new crop of CRM apps that support such hybrid work lives are genuinely cool, they might only demonstrate the deep functionality of CRM companies' platforms and not a social movement.

Pat Gelsinger's Intel is looking like the very different company it needs to be. It is more collaborative than combative, more strategic than tactical, with a far more effective plan than it has had since Andy Grove left the firm. Let's talk about how Gelsinger presents Intel as an execution and partnering powerhouse, and we'll close with the product of the week, a new set of headphones from Lenovo.

Consumer shopping patterns continue to settle into new options after holiday digital and e-gift card sales soared at the close of last year. Convenience was a large part of the changing consumer trend to favor gifts cards, along with the fact that more families are now living distributed lives. Both situations make the e-gift process more attractive to consumers.

Personalization and automation, two of the hottest buzzwords in the lexicon of CRM practitioners, are all the rage for marketers these days. But only 14 percent of organizations are using artificial intelligence or machine language to automate their marketing campaigns. A survey by Rackspace Technology reveals that the majority of organizations worldwide lack the internal resources to support these high-powered CRM initiatives.

When it comes to marketing strategies, nothing is more important than analyzing and measuring the actual effectiveness, influence, and ROI of every campaign. Understanding the contribution of every channel and the customer conversion process enables marketers to adapt and adjust accordingly. Let's discuss what marketing attribution is; and how it can help e-commerce companies grow their businesses.

The arts have seen a shift in the last year away from in-person gatherings, but that doesn't mean that performances, showings, and other creative activities have stopped. Rather, they've been transformed, becoming increasingly virtual and digital. We spoke with experts in the arts, design, and marketing to see how these fields have changed and might continue to evolve.

Nearly one-in-five rural Americans don't have broadband Internet access, but that could change with the use of carefully targeted subsidies through a process known as a reverse auction. A big, one-time capital expenditure administered through a reverse-auction program would attract larger, more efficient firms to the problem, noted ITIF Director of Broadband and Spectrum Policy Doug Brake.

A cadre of tech giants have created the Rust Foundation. This is neither the first nor largest contribution to an open-source project by private tech vendors. Still, the creation of this new body marks another noteworthy instance in which proprietary software companies took the initiative to found and steward a nonprofit project. It's not groundbreaking, but it doesn't happen every day.

Nvidia is in the process of working through regulatory approvals to buy Arm from SoftBank -- a technology holding company with mixed success husbanding its acquisitions. Let's explore this acquisition, the most significant regulatory hurdles the effort needs to overcome, and what might result once the two firms are one. We'll close with the product of the week: Nvidia's GeForce Now.

Half of consumers who originally planned to return to their pre-pandemic in-store shopping routines once coronavirus is under control now plan to stick with online shopping. That shift in preferences means that e-commerce merchants must keep up with trending ways to market, sell, and prevent fraud. Let's look at a few of the most important developments and see where they're going.

The most vulnerable cybercrime victims are young adults and adults over 75, according to the latest research revealed in the LexisNexis Risk Solutions biannual Cybercrime Report. The report reveals how unprecedented global change in 2020 created new opportunities for cybercriminals around the world, particularly as they targeted new users of online channels.

Those familiar with open source know that it works and comes with many benefits. A testament to the rising adoption of open source is the recent moves by software giants such as Microsoft, IBM, and Oracle into the open-source community. This corporate migration to open source is continuing as many organizations, both large and small, turn to open source in tough economic times.

Today, more than 60 percent of consumers start their online shopping searches on Amazon. That trend is unlikely to change, as consumers have grown accustomed to the new normal of digital purchasing. As we look ahead into 2021 and beyond, here is what will take place in the Amazon e-commerce ecosystem that every brand needs to know.

Globally, we throw out 50 million tons of electronics waste every year, which is the equivalent of 1,000 laptops every second. This month the EU addressed this problem with a comprehensive "right to repair" law to dramatically reduce this waste. Let's explore electrical hardware sustainability issues this week, and look at a laptop that seems to anticipate these new e-waste regulations.

Monitoring and maintaining your data is an ongoing, strategic process. By educating your CRM users -- and making their data entry process as easy as possible -- you can ensure that better-quality data will be entering the system. Here's how you can give your company a true advantage -- and empower everyone who relies on your CRM's data.