Secondly, if arbitration is conducted online, communication is the most important aspect. Nowadays, documents can be sent in electronic form such as by e-mail. But when it is deemed to be sent? And how to prove it? The United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) has completed its Model Law in 1996. It is intended to provide national legislators with a set of basic rules that would remove a number of existing impediments to the encouragement and growth of electronic commerce. Although it is not a treaty or convention, it has been enacted in whole or in part or used as the basis for legislation in some countries. Singapore enacted its Electronic Transactions Act 1998, and Australia has also enacted its Electronic Transactions Act 1999 (Cth). The United States of America has also prepared the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (1999) for being approved by the states. China’s new Contract Law also includes some general provisions about electronic information transferring. The basic rules of these legislations are similar. All these legislations provide a legal framework for e-commerce as well as online arbitration.
Thirdly, some worry about security risks and authentication. The major impediment to the development of electronic commerceis the inherent security risk involved in transferring information over the Internet. It is the same to the online arbitration. When a message is sent over the Internet, any of the information may be intercepted, read and altered. There are two major concerns: first, identification integrity: you are who your signature says you are; and secondly, message integrity: you may have sent the message but has it been tampered with in between the time that it was sent by the sender and received by the intended recipient? These concerns create problems for both parties tothecommunication.
However, encryption techniques are now available to prevent this interference by encoding the relevant data. The primary purpose of public/private key encryption is to maintain message integrity in the sense that the message can be identified as having originated from the person with access to that private key, that is, identification integrity. To some degree it also protects the security of the information in transit, although it may be read by anyone, in addition to the addressee, who has the sender's public key. There are some other technological solutions based on encryption techniques. Secure Electronic Transactions (SET) protects the confidentiality of the transmission and ensures the authentication of the user. Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) is a protocol to provide security for Web transactions by encrypting packets of information transmitted to the Internet site. The digital or electronic signatures are principally concerned with ensuring message integrity. They ensure that the sender is the person whom they purport to be. Some countries have enacted their legislations on digital or electronic signatures.
In addition there are other general concerns about unauthorised access. The installation of a firewall will prevent unauthorised access to company data.