Devoted to Corporate Attorneys, Corporate Lawyers, and Corporate Counsel

The following is not meant to be legal advice.

On November 6, 2007, the Association of Corporate Counsel hosted a seminar in Palo Alto, CA on the issues facing ecommerce 2.0.  Eric Goldman, who is an Assistant Professor and Director of High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University School of Law, said that there were several ways to verify a person’s geography while transacting on the Internet.

First, ask the user to self report.  Once it is known where the user is, the person can be treated under the laws of that area.  A person self reports when he/she needs something shipped, and inputs his/her address, or when he/she uses a credit card, and his/her credit card gets authenticated.  However, if the geography information is not necessary for the transaction, a person may lie about his/her geography when asked to self report. 

Another method to determine geography is to do an IP address analysis.  What might be better would be a geo location technology system. 

What are the consequences of being able to determine geographic information?  Once the geography is known, a business can provide targeted advertising.  Local information can be sent to the user to provide information on areas to shop to allow time savings, and better choices.  The government will be able to regulate locally.  Then, inconsistent regulations will arise because laws of different areas may apply at the same time.  Governments will be able to filter.  For instance, China will be better able to prevent content from certain places to be viewed.  Tax agencies will want geographic information.