The protection of commercial information in electronic communications with special reference to the internet

English: The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the commercial information of an individual is adequately protected when the individual makes use of electronic communications. This issue was addressed in two parts, namely the unauthorised access to commercial information, incorporating internet crime and the protection of personal electronic data. Under the first part two levels of access were identified. The first level dealt with the protection of information from misuse and in this section computer crime, relevant to the information of an individual, received attention. The concern of identity theft was investigated and several solutions were proposed that is available at present, including different methods of payment. The second level of the first part looked into the protection of information from third parties (who do not have permission for access). In this section cookies, spam, hacking and data mining were briefly taken into account. The second part of this study observed the protection of information that is granted to citizens of different countries under their appropriate legislation and common law principles. The principles governing the protection of privacy in the United States of America and the United Kingdom as well as in South Africa were taken into account. In particular the directives of the European Union on this theme received consideration. Throughout this study, reference has been made to the newly enacted Electronic Communications and Transaction Act (25 of 2002). Furthermore, a comparison was drawn to explore how the principles protecting personal and commercial information in the mentioned act weighed up against or contrasted with the European Union’s directives. In addition, this study regarded the developments on international level and in particular the activities of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), other United Nations projects and activities by the Council of Europe.