ILPF will publish the results of its findings upon completion of the project in December 1998. The self-regulation discussion takes place at a time when the growth of electronic commerce and the Internet is unprecedented and highly dynamic with new innovations, applications and services coming almost daily. Governments and industry have embraced the proposition that the private sector should lead the development of electronic commerce with government action only where necessary to support a predictable legal environment. The debate between industry and governments today regards how to address social dislocations and anomalies that occur in times of such rapid change without sacrificing the promise of electronic commerce. Self-regulation instead of direct government intervention has become widely accepted as the appropriate policy direction.
Individual empowerment is one of the dramatic possibilities of the Internet.
There is no bound to the amount of information available to individual consumers of Internet services today, ranging from cost-effective means and modes of access to the Internet to the nature and kind of business practices in use for electronic commerce. Indeed, individual choice is celebrated in the very nature of the Internet where an individual self-determines what sites to visit, what content to view, and whether to do so anonymously or with the necessary identification to complete a transaction. In response to strong consumer demands, technological tools have been and are being developed to protect privacy, permit secure electronic transactions, and protect against inadvertent exposure to undesired content. Businesses, ever alert to consumer preferences, respond to these demands by adopting practices and providing services that meet the needs and desires of their customers. Any other course would be disadvantageous on the Internet.