World Telecommunication Day 1999 |
The locationless, borderless nature of cyberspace raises important jurisdiction issues. Technologies and trends in cyberspace evolve unpredictably and rapidly, while legislative and regulatory bodies move slowly. Reality on the Internet outpaces attempts to define and apply legislation. Whether increased regulation will hinder or spur electronic commerce is a subject of debate. After eight months of meetings, the Global Business Dialogue on Electronic Commerce, which includes the chief executives of some of the world's top technology companies, recently urged governments to let the industry regulate itself.
The commerce, privacy and intellectual property laws of even one country form a multilayered mosaic of history, incremental additions and amendments. Viewed globally, the complexity is staggering. A recent International Telecommunication Union (ITU) report on the role of national telecommunications policymakers and regulators in the development of e-commerce concluded that ''many critical issues raised by e-commerce, including intellectual property rights, taxation, dispute resolution and contract issues, fall outside the telecommunications regulator's scope, although they should endeavor to keep abreast of developments in the full range of policy issues and provide advice whenever necessary.''
Global e-commerce requires legal consensus on technical aspects of electronic transactions, such as digital signatures, which in turn depend on internationally recognized certification. ''The ITU and its Standards Sector,'' says Arthur Levin of the ITU Legal Affairs Department, ''have played a key role in the development of many of the technical standards that enable the Internet to operate seamlessly across borders and provide the underpinning for secure Internet transactions. As part of its new initiatives, the ITU hopes to facilitate the harmonization of national approaches in the development of electronic signatures and other tools that are vital to e-commerce.''
Building virtual borders
Data security concerns are an impediment to e-commerce. The technological answer is encryption of financial and personal data. Some countries, including the United States, restrict the export of strong encryption, limiting product developers and service providers' ability to implement the measures needed to bolster consumer confidence. France and the United States recently relaxed their restrictions, although law enforcement officials fear that encryption will foster illegal activities in cyberspace.
Security worries had centered on fraud, but privacy issues have now come to the fore. Data warehousing and data mining raise concerns about what companies do with data culled from on-line transactions. In 1995, the European Union adopted the EU Data Protection Directive, which has won both praise and criticism. Detractors say it is both too restrictive and unenforceable.
Charles Tobermann