Global digital commerce: Impacts and risks for developments of global information societies

Abstract

Many regard the Internet as a prototype of an information infrastructure on which a global information society may be built. Some enterprises are trying to take advantage of early applications of digital commerce on the Internet. As the Internet is missing essential features of reliability, functionality and confidentiality which are prerequisites for the fair distribution of risks between market participants, current digital commerce services load all the risks on customers and users. This paper discusses some essential requirements for safe and functionally acceptable information services, and it discusses current problems with actual examples from digital payment systems. The paper concludes that public and legal action is required to release customers and users from their overwhelming share of risks.