Increasingly, an ever-wider range of economic, political and social activities are moving online, encompassing various kinds of information and communications technologies (ICTs). The evolving ICT use is having a transformational impact on the way business is done, and the way people interact among themselves, as well as with government, enterprises and other stakeholders. This new landscape gives rise to new business models and a wider scope for innovation. At the same time, it facilitates undesirable activities online, including cybercrime. Against this background, world leaders in 2015 underscored the importance of adopting relevant policy responses to harness the potential of ICTs for all seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Creating trust online is a fundamental challenge to ensuring that the opportunities emerging in the information economy can be fully leveraged. The handling of data is a central component in this context. In today's digital world, personal data are the fuel that drives much commercial activity online, raising concerns of privacy and security of information. The present regulatory situation is far from ideal. Some countries lack rules altogether. Some national pieces of legislation are incompatible with each other. UNCTAD provides legal advise and build capacity of policy and law makers. It also serves as a valuable forum for a much-needed global dialogue geared to building consensus in a very important policy field such as data protection.
UNCTAD's work on Developing electronic commerce legislation: unctad.org/en/Pages/DTL/STI_an...
13 апр 2016
