Global electronic commerce (e-commerce) is currently on virtually every national and international policy agentda. In 1997 the European Commission published a Communication on _"A European Initiative in Electronic Commerce~ui shortly before the President Clinton launched the US intitative _A Framework for Global Electronic Commerce~uii. Numerous national governments have taken their own similar initiatives. There is broad consensus worldwide that the success of electronic commerce largely depends on building user-confidence in the security and confidentiality of transactions on the Information Super Highway. there can be no doubt that privacy is a particular concern of users. A recent European survey showed that two thirds of the respondents are worried about trails of personal data that are left behind when using digital information networks. (I am confining myself here to the specific problems of online-transactions although electronic commerce is also happening offine (e.g. CD-ROMs)).
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