As helpful the research might be on a sociological scale to help us understand the behavior of humans in specific situations during a period of time, the research raised a serious question of ethics on the internet. How far are internet marketers, and web-masters in general, allowed to go for the sake of research or to simply get ahead of the competition on the internet - the land where anything and everything is possible? Most areas of the internet are so tough and competitive that it is the concept of survival of the fittest which rules, and in such an environment it is common to see all tricks in play; ethical or not. So is there a thing called ethics on the internet?An obvious place to start looking at ethics when in the field of internet marketing is a place we are all familiar with no matter what niche we engage in, SEO. The internet overflows with websites and companies telling us how to get to the top of the search rankings, but many of these ‘tricks’ are seen as unethical or borderline. Whether it being keyword stuffing or invisible text, the internet community as a whole have agreed that this is unethical behavior, and during the last 5-10 years Google have been giving harder punishments for websites being guilty of black hat SEO techniques to the extent that it is widely considered as an offense as much as its considered unethical.
Where black hat SEO is being unethical to other websites and businesses by getting an edge over them in the search rankings, a much more grave, although less discussed, unethical behavior is the tricks websites use towards its customers or potential customers. That isn't to say that websites should advertise all their lacking and shortcomings, but isn't it unethical to pretend to be something you’re not? But most standard definitions is it unethical and the deceit will not go unnoticed, and in the long run it will hurt your business.
The responsibility we have toward the public goes much further than not being deceitful of course. On the website of the Internet Marketing Association (IMA), a Code of Ethics/Code of Professional conduct is presented. Here the 'do’s' are very general stating that a member shall “demonstrate a commitment to professionalism and diligence”, “exhibit the highest level of integrity”, and “continually strive to increase the competence and effectiveness of professional services”. What these vague expressions actually means is that it must be up to each person to decides what is right and what is wrong, but on the other hand a much more clear message is stated with the 'dont’s' being that a member shall “not engage in any illegal or unethical Internet marketing or cyber-fraud activities”, “avoid the practice of abusive spamming for marketing purposes”, and “not reveal any confidential information obtained”.
Similar to black hat SEO, there are many other black hat techniques for manipulating the people and the internet often for cyber-fraud activities that much more often considered an offense or a crime than unethical behavior. For example spamming and revealing confidential information, both which mainly hurts the internet end users. It is best to treat the people that are internet users and your (potential) clients with the respect they are entitled to. Most importantly if you are not sure whether your practices are unethical, take a step back and imagine how you would feel about your action if you were on the other side of the table.
In a crazy world the internet has become, it is important that we remember that on the other side of the screen sits another person, and that person deserves to be treated respectfully. In the end this will reflect on your website and business which will be seen as a respectful and valued member of the internet community.
