Posts

Showing posts from June, 2011

THE ONLINE WORLD AND PRIVACY: HOW SAFE ARE YOU?

Introduction It is unimaginable on the face of it for the identity of an individual in a village in Ghana and using the Internet to be known by another in Glasgow. There is no doubt that “Cyberspace creates new potentials for good and evil, for creative expression and criminal exploitation” but the issue is, the extent of “privacy” and “anonymity” in the online world and whether the benefits are worth it. This article is an attempt to consider the statements by Scot McNealy, Chairman of SUN Microsystems that   “you have zero privacy already. Get over it”   and Peter Steiner, a cartoonist that “on the Internet nobody knows you are a dog” which in my opinion sums up the two extreme schools of thought, those that see danger everywhere ( perceived as paranoid luddites ) and those that see no danger whatsoever ( perceived as naïve technophiles)     Right To Privacy Right to privacy has been a fundamental human right issue even before the advent of the advancement in ICT such as: Ar

THE LEGAL ISSUES IN E-MAIL CONTRACTING AND THE ELECTRONIC TRANSACTIONS ACT 2008 (ACT 772) : HAS GHANA GOT IT RIGHT?

Introduction Traditionally an offline contract is formed when an offer made is subsequently accepted and by the acceptance the time or moment and place the contract is formed can be easily ascertained by either the ‘postal acceptance rule’ or the ‘general rule of acceptance’. The Postal Acceptance Rule or Mail Box Rule This provides that a contract is formed when the letter of acceptance is placed in the mailbox. Lord Herschell defined the above rule as: Where the circumstances are such that it must have been made within the contemplation of the parties that …the post might be used as the means of communication the acceptance of the offer, the acceptance is complete as   soon as it is posted. The basic assumption of the postal rule is that : There will be a substantial delay in delivery of the letter, depending on where the letter is to be sent There is a small risk that due to difficulties the message may be delayed further, or not reach its destination at all It is evident ther

REGULATING E-MONEY IN GHANA: WATCH AND MONITOR THE TELECOMMUNICATION AND IT COMPANIES

Introduction The technological landscape has become so innovative and breaking traditional barriers that the possibility of undertaking a transaction that hitherto was not possible looks amazing and innovative and we all get drawn into the, “WOW factor”. Questioning some of these possibilities makes you feel you are old fashioned and do not understand Information Technology (IT) issues so you keep quiet. Just like science, there are so many scientific possibilities but the question is; are they ethical or to what extent do they eventually put the human race at risk? As in science the possibilities of IT must be regulated where such innovations have the tendency to only boost the ego of the technologist as having created something innovative to make money as against the social and economic impact of the general public.    Electronic Money (E-Money), might take different forms which depending on its impact on the economy may require different regulatory tools. I think the emergence