Have you flown on an airplane, used prescription drugs or made a purchase with a credit card recently? If so, then chances are high that you were fewer than six degrees of separation from B2B e-Commerce technologies which helped protect your safety, health or identify. Review the questions below about your recent experiences. If you answered “Yes” to any of the questions, then you can read how B2B e-Commerce may have made your life safer.
Protecting You on the Road
Most US states have legislation requiring drivers to purchase a minimum amount of liability insurance. The laws ensure that drivers can cover the costs of damages to people or property resulting from an automobile accident. Insurance carriers are required to file reports of their policyholder’s liability coverage with the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). The insurer’s reports can be correlated against driver’s license records to identify individuals with inadequate coverage. States can then pursue action to penalize the uninsured and enforce the legal requirements. The result is that all drivers have a reduced risk of being financially burdened with the costs of repairs or medical treatment related to an accident they did not cause. B2B integration technologies are utilized to exchange Auto Liability Insurance Reporting (ALIR) between each state’s DMV and the leading property and casualty insurers. In fact, specialized B2B networks such as IVANS and AAMVAnet are frequently used for these communications.
Protecting Your Personal Health Information
Selected B2B transactions in the health care industry contain Protected Health Information (PHI). These transactions might relate to lab work, prescription requests, insurance claims or payments associated with your health care activities. All companies which transmit PHI electronically are required to comply with strict security and privacy regulations as defined by the US HIPAA legislation. The result is that health care insurers, hospitals, laboratories, physician’s offices and retail pharmacies must implement technologies such as firewalls, encryption, anti-virus and intrusion detection technologies to safeguard your personal health records. With such safeguards in place, public disclosures of PHI that might result in embarrassment, loss of employment, loss of insurance or identity theft are significantly reduced.
Protecting You from Fraud and Identity Theft
When you use a personal or commercial credit card to make a purchase, a series of B2B transactions between the merchant, the merchant’s bank, the card processing network (Visa, Mastercard) and the card issuing bank occurs. Part of the transaction, the authorization, occurs in real-time at the point of sale. Other parts of the transactions such as clearing, settlement and reporting occur in batch mode shortly after your purchase. The B2B transactions between various entities can include Payment Card Information (PCI) such as your credit card account number, expiration data or the verification code. All merchants and financial institutions which manage payment card data are required to comply with the PCI regulations developed by the card industry. Consequently, retailers, on-line merchants, issuing banks, merchant acquirers, third party processors and card brands must implement technologies such as firewalls, encryption, anti-virus and intrusion detection technologies to protect payment card data. With such safeguards in place for external B2B data flows, the probability that your payment card information will be used for identity theft or fraudulent activity is significantly lower.
Protecting You from Counterfeit Drugs
Studies indicate that 10% of all pharmaceuticals worldwide are counterfeit. The most significant challenges with counterfeit drugs are in emerging markets. However, there have been several noteworthy cases of health risks posed by these products in the US as well. For example, there have been cases in which schizophrenia drugs were imprinted with “Aspirin” on the pills. A new technology called electronic pedigree would help to reduce the amount of counterfeiting in the pharmaceutical supply chain. E-pedigree would track the chain of custody for medicines as they travel from the original manufacturer to regional and national distributors and finally to retailers. E-Pedigree is enabled by a combination of RFID and B2B integration technologies. Pedigree legislation has been enacted in over 30 states. However, only a few such as California have formalized requirements for electronic tracking. As RFID technologies mature and price points fall, the use of e-pedigree will grow thereby helping to ensure a safer supply chain for all of us.
Protecting You against Terrorist Hijackings
Following the September 11th terrorist attacks, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and equivalent ministries/agencies in other countries have been more aggressively managing commercial air travel in efforts to prevent future attacks. International flights are subject to more rigorous government inspection as there is not only a threat of terrorism during airtime, but also the possibility that persons on known watch lists might be crossing into the US. Airline operators are required to send advanced copies of passenger manifests to DHS for all inbound international flights. The manifests are compared against suspect databases for possible matches. Once the screening is completed, DHS will respond with any flight restrictions required for suspicious passengers. The security screening process must be completed before an aircraft is given clearance for departure. B2B integration technologies such as EDI are utilized to transmit the information between the airline operators and government agencies. This is just one of many ways that B2B helps to keep you safe.
Protecting You against Dirty Bombs
Since the September 11th terrorist attacks, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has instituted numerous regulations to improve security related to ocean, ground and rail freight entering the country. For example, the Advanced Manifest Rule specifies that an ocean container can be allowed into US only if detailed information about the contents is provided electronically in advance. Similar procedures have been enacted for all trucks entering the US from Canada or Mexico. Ground freight carriers must submit an electronic manifest prior to arrival at the border. Recently, the regulations have become more formalized with an initiative called 10+2 that specifies 12 pieces of information that must be submitted to Customs and Border Patrol from an ocean vessel destined for the US prior to the ship’s departure from the foreign port. The 10 and the 2 refer to the number of data elements required from the importer and transportation carrier respectively. E-commerce technologies such as EDI are the primary means by which transportation carriers, third party logistics providers, US importers and foreign exporters can submit cargo manifests and customs declarations to DHS.
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