Abstract:
Electronic and mobile commerce involve unique legal and audit risks
due to the proliferation of technologies now on offer. Governance and
accountability issues associated with disruptive technologies, such as peer-to-peer
technologies, spamming and wireless technologies, are particularly
challenging. This paper reviews the impact of peer-to-peer frameworks in a
legal and audit context with a view to elaborating business risks and policy
implications of disruptive technologies for governments, managers and
knowledge workers. The requirement for forensic auditing is addressed, and the
challenges posed to genuine commercial activity by lawful intercept and
sovereign risk are canvassed, in addition to incipient threats to intellectual
property audit (i.e. technical diligence). Knowledge workers (including
managers) should be aware of their expanding legal accountabilities and of the
requirement for corporate accountability when adopting peer-to-peer business
models or any other class of disruptive technology. The proposed Accountability
Framework adumbrated in this paper encompasses three key sub-systems.
