Electronic commerce is changing the way businesses, of all sizes, work internally and interact with their customers and suppliers. It is also affecting individuals, who will increasingly communicate with business and other individuals through a home computer or a digital TV connected to the internet, or using a publicly available kiosk in a public library or the local supermarket etc. Many transactions, whether by individuals or businesses, are with various arms of government itself. The Government is also committed to increase its use of electronic commerce in procurement. It is something associated with an electronic document that is the electronic equivalent of a manual signature.
Electronic signatures come in many different forms.
One purpose of the policy detailed here is to set out what is needed for an electronic signature to be regarded as legally equivalent to a hand-written signature. Cryptography is the science of how codes work and may seem of limited interest outside the military and espionage communities. However, it has long been used by banks and is an essential tool for electronic commerce. One application is to keep electronic data, ranging from an e-mail, perhaps sent over the internet, to a file stored on a floppy disk, confidential. This document explains the Government s proposals for legislation to promote electronic commerce, to start updating the law to reflect what is technologically possible and to ensure that the powers of law enforcement agencies are not undermined by the increasingly widespread ability to encrypt electronic information.