Title: A world-wide window: intelligent agents in e-world adverts

Authors: Susan E. George

Addresses: School of Computer and Information Science, University of South Australia, Mawson Lakes Boulevard, Mawson Lakes, SA 5095, Australia

Abstract: Spam is a serious problem that is enough to warrant national legislation against it in most countries. Companies have found that time and resources are lost in dealing with spam. Legislation that restricts commercial messaging tackles aspects of the problem while technical solutions physically restrict message propagation. This paper reviews morals beneath commercial advertising. Although there are many issues to be adequately attended to in advertising, it can be regarded as immoral because such information is not available. The question is how to |target| people, given that |consent| is legally necessary. Spyware is not the answer since it intrudes privacy, while eBay-like fora do not tackle the |information overload|. A world-wide window is proposed as an electronic |shop front| where intelligent agents browse and post ads according to a user profile. The agent also has the potential to stimulate reflective thinking about the product. This ultimately leads to ethical advertising and ensures that a rational choice is made from information.

Keywords: ethical advertising; world-wide window; spyware; intelligent agents; e-ethics; e-information; e-advertising; online advertising; internet advertising; agent-based systems; ethical issues; ethical issues; ethics; spam; commercial messaging.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIMA.2006.008974

International Journal of Internet Marketing and Advertising, 2006 Vol.3 No.1, pp.60 - 67

Published online: 09 Feb 2006 *

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