Marketing activities often have a substantial amount of ethical problems when it comes to business. In the past marketing research has had to compete with the extensive use of the Internet and of social networking. Because so many people is using social media it makes it easy for companies to associate with customers and gather their data, and personal information, along with unrelated information that goes directly into a computer database. In today’s world the way companies do market research have severe ethical ramifications, because the way some companies used consumers information can impact the consumers live in many that can take years to repair. Furthermore if a company is consider being unethical that company can be faced with committing deceptive practices, breaches of confidentiality, and invasion of privacy and receive criticism by the community (Masters & Media, 2015).
By using deceptive practices a company can be dishonesty in its research methods. For instance by not telling customers that their information is being collected when the customer access the company’s website this is consider deception and therefore unethical.
When companies collect customer’s information for advertising, but it’s really for research propose without letting the customer know that they are collecting their information that becomes an invasion of the customers privacy and is unethical.
Another substantial ethical issue involved in market research is breaches of confidentiality that’s happen when a company gives, sell, or share customers information to partners or affiliates or any other company that uses the customer information in any unauthorized or unethical way (Masters & Media, 2015).