Assignment in law (Legal Issues Relevant to the Quality of the Website Essay

Assignment in law (Legal Issues Relevant to the Quality of the Website and Indecent Images of Children, Invention Law, Expert Witness) - Essay Example Synergy Ltd, the company in which I am a systems manager does not want to be left out of the internet technology and its benefits. Therefore, the company has sought to develop a website in order to attract clients in the wake of the economic downturn. The website will provide relevant contact information, technical information, and a discussion group allowing registered users to discuss problems, and allow them to estimate the charge for recovering information. The company has sought the services of a developer to develop its website. There are legal issues that are relevant to the quality of website delivered by the developer and to protecting the company from problems. These issues include the following: private and security issue and legal liability issue. According to Baumer, Lyengar, & Moffie, (2003, p. 23), the issue of privacy and security is one of the main issues that surround creation of websites. Websites are crucial for storing and selling of information that benefits both the businesses and the consumers. However, there is a concern among businesses and consumers regarding their personal safety and privacy of their personal and other sensitive information. This concern is compounded by the ease with which information may be cross processed and collected from websites. In the United Kingdom, the issue of website security and privacy is covered under the Data Protection Act 1998 and Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 (Defago and Bockanic, 2006, p. 205). These Acts requires that cookies should be signposted on the websites. In addition, they require that visitors of the websites should be allowed to refuse or accept their personal details to be collected and used in the websites. Also, the Acts requires that personal information that is collected concerning individual visitors should be used or processed in accordance to the principles and provisions set out in the Privacy Regulations and the Data Protection Acts. More importantly, these Acts seek to protect businesses in an event that commercial relationships become ruined, as was demonstrated in the case of Ashton Investments v OSJC (2006). In this case, OSJC (a Russian company) employed spyware to the computer system of its former business partner, Ashton Investments, to hack illegally private information relating to the litigation between them. In the light of these two Acts and the need to protect the business in an event of ruined relationship between the company and its business partners, the developer of the website should ensure that the website has a high level of privacy and security. In regard to the issue of legal liability, it is important to point out that the utilization of Wide Web has prompted businesses to venture in unexplored business frontiers. As such, they are more likely to be exposed to legal risks. This issue has been exacerbating by the fact that most laws relating to cyberspace in both criminal and civil dimensions are still in comparative legal infancy. The legal liability issues relating to websites are copyrights, infringement of copyrights, website development contracts, appropriation of names, and defamation (Baumer, Lyengar, & Moffie, 2003, p. 24). In addition to under the Data Protection Act 1998 and Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003, Digital Economy Act 2010 makes legal provisions for website and internet. The Act has provisions that seek