The Citizens in the Information Society

The Information Society, in general, and Electronic Commerce, in particular, offer many exceptional opportunities and challenges for today's and future generations. Therefore they deserve encouragement as well as global protection - both legal and technical - so as to ensure that they will enjoy the highest possible level of confidence to use.

At the same time, information and communication technology provides a technical driving force that causes fundamental changes in society. It especially changes the way people acquire and use material and non-material goods, i.e. products, services and information about these. It also changes the way people express themselves and make decisions.

The new technology facilitates easy acquisition, distribution and use (as well as misuse) of great amounts of information. This situation requires a new look after the checks and balances. The traditional means of maintaining 'level playing fields' in commerce have either to be modified, so that they work in the new environment or have to be replaced by better solutions. Also new skills and talents are needed, so as to make proper use of the opportunities offered.

Regulation concerning this field should consider the following aspects, which are direct results of the fundamental societal changes caused (that truly make it an Information Society):

1. Access to the Internet and the other relevant information resources: Citizens should be able to obtain affordable access to information and services (implicitly with support from public funds if necessary eg via public libraries, cost of local telephone calls, etc).

2. Authenticated and valid information: The information one gets should be what one thinks it is (authentication of contents) and not, for example, a spoof site or part of an international fraud etc. It should never be misleading or misrepresenting in nature. Any commercial arrangement (such as an e-commerce order or a financial transaction) should be verifiable and mutually binding.

3. Privacy: Citizens should be able to act in the information society without having to fear that information regarding legitimate behavior and interests is later used against them. For example they should be able to acquire information (on consumer goods as well as on political positions) without having to fear a profiling of their preferences.

4. Assurance: Everybody should be assured that there are ways of redress in case the authentication or privacy requirements are violated. Citizens should be assisted in finding and employing these when the situation arises, i.e. liabilities should always be clear and should not be biased towards the stronger parties.

5. Internet literacy: Communities have the duty to give citizens the opportunity to acquire the necessary skills to act in the information society, especially to cope with the opportunities and challenges resulting from the widespread use of the Internet.

It is the responsibility of the governments and the international government alliances to protect citizens from breaches against the above principles, especially in areas, where other government's activities endanger them. It is not easy to decide, what national government forces can achieve in the virtual world, but clear areas for government responsibility and appropriate action are:

1. Protection against the breaking of confidentiality cryptography by foreign forces, when its legal for use within the country.

2. Protection against impounding of information by other governments when the citizen is unaware of either the data being in that other country or the other country being able to impound it.