Netiquette IQ and Valentine's Ecards - Reposted

Here is an excerpt from my book, discuss below. It is valuable reading before you send those cards out!
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One of the major downsides of ecards is that security can be compromised: when someone purchases an ecard, he or she is providing information to the seller, or third party. One of the more extreme examples of this is that the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) is suspended to allow sites to accept a child’s ecard request and addresses without parental permission, as would normally be the case. There are also countless scams involving ecards, which can mislead children or people of any age. It is almost too much to ask certain people to have the discipline not to open ecards.

While there is much positive impact associated with ecards, as has been discussed, the negative issues, particularly many of the most significant ones, can have, more often, negative effects. After all, far more people would rather have a real or, at the very least, personalized ecard.

For those who will steadfastly refuse to open an ecard, there may very well be times when a legitimate message goes unopened—still another negative outcome. This can end up with an effect such as having the recipient feel disappointment that he or she did not receive a greeting or invitation by someone he or she was expecting to hear from. What is a good solution? There are some very popular ecard providers. If you want to use trusted sources of ecards, go to either www.jacquielawson.com or www.care2.com/ecards
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In addition to this blog, Netiquette IQ has a website with great assets which are being added to on a regular basis. I have authored the premiere book on Netiquette, “Netiquette IQ - A Comprehensive Guide to Improve, Enhance and Add Power to Your Email". My new book, “You’re Hired! Super Charge Your Email Skills in 60 Minutes. . . And Get That Job!” will be published soon follow by a trilogy of books on Netiquette for young people. You can view my profile, reviews of the book and content excerpts at:

 www.amazon.com/author/paulbabicki

 If you would like to listen to experts in all aspects of Netiquette and communication, try my radio show on BlogtalkRadio  Additionally, I provide content for an online newsletter via paper.li. I have also established Netiquette discussion groups with Linkedin and Yahoo.  I am also a member of the International Business Etiquette and Protocol Group and Minding Manners among others. Further, I regularly consult for the Gerson Lehrman Group, a worldwide network of subject matter experts and have been a contributor to numerous blogs and publications. 

Lastly, I am the founder and president of Tabula Rosa Systems, a company that provides “best of breed” products for network, security and system management and services. Tabula Rosa has a new blog and Twitter site which offers great IT product information for virtually anyone.

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