29 June - 5 July 2000

A service provider's perspective

Keith Fearne, chief executive officer of Terranet and e-Shore said the White Paper on the legislative framework for information practices was very positive and service provider friendly. He said that finally, there was now a legal framework for electronic commerce.

Speaking on the data protection act, he said businesses needed a clear indication of when the data protection act will come into effect. If these provisions are to include data collected in the past, this will be an important issue for us.

Mr Fearne asked if the law provided for the exchange of data between a group of companies falling under one mother company. "This is another very important consideration for us," he said. And speaking on electronic commerce and especially electronic signatures, he asked if Malta could afford to have certificate authorities.

Mr Fearne said unsolicited email from a service provider point of view could be a very costly as it was wasteful. He also brought up a case of unfair competition with regards to data protection. He said that exempting non-profit organisations with political, philosophical, religious or trade-union objectives could bring about unfair competition since these could process sensitive personal data for commercial purposes.