ELECTRONIC COMMERCE ACT

Objectives of E-Commerce Act

1. To facilitate domestic and international dealings, transactions, and exchange and storage of information through the use of technology

2. To recognize the authenticity and reliability of electronic data messages or electronic documents related to such activities and

3. To promote the universal use of electronic transactions in the government and by the general public

Applicability

Applicable to any kind of electronic document used in the context of commercial and non-commercial activities to include domestic and international dealings, transactions, arrangements, agreements, contracts, and exchange and storage of information

It refers to any device or apparatus which, by electronic, electro-mechanical, or magnetic impulse, or by other means, is capable of receiving, recording, transmitting, storing, processing, retrieving, or producing information, data, figures, symbols or other modes of written expression according to mathematical and logical rules or of performing any one or more of these functions.

Computer

It refers to a system intended for and capable of generating, sending, receiving, storing, or otherwise processing electronic data messages or electronic documents and includes the computer system or other similar device by or in which data is recorded or stored and any procedures related to the recording or storage of electronic data message or electronic document.

Information and Communications System

It refers to a person by whom, or on whose behalf, the electronic document purports to have been created, generated and/or sent. The term does not include a person acting as an intermediary with respect to that electronic document.

Originator (kung kanino nanggaling yung information)

It refers to a person who is intended by the originator to receive the electronic data message or electronic document. The term does not include a person acting as an intermediary with respect to that electronic data message or electronic data document.

Addressee

It refers to a person who in behalf of another person and with respect to a particular electronic document sends, receives and/or stores provides other services in respect of that electronic data message or electronic document.

Intermediary

It refers to a provider of -

i. Online services or network access or the operator of facilities therefor, including entities offering the transmission, routing, or providing of connections for online communications, digital or otherwise, between or among points specified by a user, of electronic documents of the user's choosing (globe, smart, pldt, google); or

ii. The necessary technical means by which electronic documents of an originator may be stored and made accessible to designated or undesignated third party (data management).

Service Provider

Service Provides have no authority to:

1. Modify or alter the content of the electronic data message or electronic document received or

2. To make any entry therein on behalf of the originator, addressee or any third party unless specifically authorized to do so.

It refers to information generated, sent, received or stored by electronic, optical or similar means.

Electronic Data Message

It refers to any distinctive mark, characteristic and/or sound in electronic form, representing the identity of a person and attached to or logically associated with the electronic data message or electronic document or any methodology or procedures employed or adopted by a person and executed or adopted by such person with the intention of authenticating or approving an electronic data message or electronic document.

Electronic Signature

It refers to a secret code which secures and defends sensitive information that cross over public channels

Electronic Key

It refers to information or the representation of information, data, figures, symbols or other modes of written expression, described or however represented, by which a right is established or an obligation extinguished, or by which a fact may be prove and affirmed, which is receive, recorded, transmitted, stored, processed, retrieved or produced electronically.

Electronic Document

An electronic document has the functional equivalent of a written document (T/F)

True

The court can deny the validity or enforceability of the information if it is in the form of electronic data message (T/F)

False

Where the law requires a document to be IN WRITING, that requirement is met by an electronic document if the said document:

1. Maintains its integrity and reliability and

2. Can be authenticated so as to be usable for subsequent reference, in that:

   1. The electronic document has remained complete and unaltered, apart from the addition of any endorsement and any authorized change, or any change which arises in the normal course of communication, storage and display; and

   2. The electronic document is reliable in the light of the purpose for which it was generated and in the light of all relevant circumstances.

An electronic signature on the electronic document shall be equivalent to the signature of a person on a written document if:

1. The signature is an electronic signature and

2. Proved by showing that a prescribed procedure, not alterable by the parties interested in the electronic document, existed under which -

   (a) A method is used to identify the party sought to be bound and to indicate said party's access to the electronic document necessary for his consent or approval through the electronic signature (It identifies the person signing and shows that they accessed the document to approve or agree to it);

   (b) Said method is reliable and appropriate for the purpose for which the electronic document was generated or communicated, in the light of all circumstances, including any relevant agreement;

   (c) It is necessary for the party sought to be bound, in or order to proceed further with the transaction, to have executed or provided the electronic signature (The other party must sign to move forward with the deal or transaction).; and

   (d) The other party is authorized and enabled to verify the electronic signature and to make the decision to proceed with the transaction authenticated by the same.

Presumption Relating to Electronic Signatures

1. The electronic signature is the signature of the person to whom it correlates; and

2. The electronic signature was affixed by that person with the intention of signing or approving the electronic document unless

   1. The person relying on the electronically designed electronic document knows or has notice of defects in or unreliability of the signature or

   2. Reliance on the electronic signature is not reasonable under the circumstances.

Who has the burden of proving the authenticity of the electronic data message or document in a legal proceeding?

The person seeking to introduce an electronic data message or document

A contract made electronically cannot be valid if it in under the statute of frauds (T/F)

False (functional equivalence)

The Electronic Data Message or Electronic Document is that of the originator if:

a. It was sent by the originator himself

b. As between the originator and the addressee, an electronic data message or electronic document is deemed to be that of the originator if it was sent:

1. by a person who had the authority to act on behalf of the originator with respect to that electronic data message or electronic document; or

2. by an information system programmed by, or on behalf of the originator to operate automatically.

As between the originator and the addressee, an addressee is entitled to regard an electronic data message or electronic document as being that of the originator, and to act on that assumption, if:

(a) in order to ascertain whether the electronic data message or electronic document was that of the originator, the addressee properly applied a procedure previously agreed to by the originator for that purpose (ginawa niya yung instruction ng originator like using of password); or

(b) the electronic data message or electronic document as received by the addressee resulted from the actions of a person whose relationship with the originator or with any agent of the originator enabled that person to gain access to a method used by the originator to identify electronic data messages as his own.

Generally, acknowledgement of receipt is necessary (T/F)

False

When the Electronic Document enters an information system outside the control of the originator, it is considered in dispatch (T/F)

True

Time of Receipt

Unless otherwise agreed,

a. Upon entry in the designated information system, if the parties has designated an information system.

b. Upon retrieval by the addressee:

1. There is a designated information system, but the originator and the addressee are both participants in the designated information system;

2. The electronic message or electronic document enters an information system of the address that is not the designated information system

c. Upon entry in the information system of the addressee, if the parties did not designate an information system