Adv. Rajesh, Chief Coordinator, SoftSettle Support
As the technology provides new tools to prevent disputes, it lowers the barriers to complaining and initiating a dispute resolution process. The things may go up, but the evaluation of an ODR effort may be more complex so far it is confronting with so many challenges for its survival. The main concerns are security and confidentiality of such process rather than its identity.
Security in ODR
As everybody knows that information and documents exchanged during an offline dispute resolution could be kept confidential. I heard that some antagonists of ODR used to say that the online dispute resolution process has not undergone drastic security measures so as to curtail the communication on the internet from becoming public. So that the need to ensure proceedings being kept confidential has become an imperative challenge as far as ODR is concerned.
As a coordinator of ODR wing in SoftSettle Support, I suggested that my team shall fix the security in the context of ODR in such a way as to comprise the following elements while developing the platform MEDIATOR AFFAIR:
§ Parties to an online dispute need to be sure that communications made during the ODR process remain confidential and cannot be accessed by third parties without authorization. This can be achieved by providing ODR participants with authentication credentials and encrypting data through the use of public key cryptography.
§ The integrity of transmitted data needs to be guaranteed. The use of encryption techniques goes some way toward achieving this; the use of digital signatures by parties to an online dispute can further assist in verifying the integrity of communications. Digital signatures also help each disputant to verify the identity of the other party to the dispute.
§ ODR service providers need to be conscious of the possibility that one of the disputants may attempt to compromise the integrity of ODR proceedings by distributing confidential information to third parties. One solution to this problem is the use of ‘split-key’ encryption, in which data exchanged during proceedings is encrypted using a key, with each party to the dispute retaining a portion of the code that comprises the key. Decryption can then only occur with the consent of both disputants.
Overall, there is an adequate range of security measures available to fortify the confidentiality of ODR proceedings while using the platform MEDIATOR AFFAIR. The vast speed, at which technology evolves, however, means MEDIATOR AFFAIR need to continually evaluate whether the security measures being implemented are sufficient to ensure that the privacy of proceedings is maintained.
Confidentiality in ODR
Parties may be very concerned to ensure that proceedings are not disclosed to the public because a dispute resolution process can be expected to produce more satisfactory results when each party is assured that the information gathered during the proceeding will not be further communicated unless permission is given to do so.
For some types of information exchanged between the parties there is protection against unauthorized third parties. Other types of information exchanged between one of the parties and the mediator/arbitrator may be protected by nondisclosure to the other party.
The ‘confidentiality’ or ‘secrecy’ of information is very important for the security of ODR. The need for confidentiality in ODR will differ according to whether the dispute involves a negotiation, mediation or arbitration. In an automated negotiation, ‘the offers and demands expressed by the parties are not revealed to any individual, not to the other party nor to any other person.’ In assisted negotiation or mediation, parties are likely to expect total confidentiality as it concerns no one but them.
The automatic storage of information facilitated in MEDIATOR AFFAIR can create privacy problems in relation to personal information. So that the parties need to have control of their own information, to determine who can gain access to information and on what terms. In the course of ODR proceedings using MEDIATOR AFFAIR, parties may reveal sensitive personal information that needs to be protected and only disclosed to others with their consent. Firewalls and method of encryption to some extent protect the information from being get disseminated.
MEDIATOR AFFAIR explored more vistas in finding out the solutions to the mysteries likely to cause in the process of online dispute resolution. One possible solution to this conundrum would involve a short-term policy in which resolutions reached through the use of ODR are kept confidential, with only aggregate statistical data relating to proceedings being published. As ODR becomes an increasingly popular method of resolving disputes arising from e-commerce transactions, service providers could then begin to shift toward an increased level of transparency by publishing important decisions. Another option would involve as it is ideal in publishing details of key decisions, but removing any personal information that would enable the identification of either of the parties to the dispute.
I hope dispute systems designed in MEDIATOR AFFAIR which employs technology and also embeds technology in the system created is likely to lead ODR down a path that will generate new options, new challenges, new roles and new expectations. Technology can not only reinforce processes but change them and how we can eliminate the problems confronting ODR which is already being accepted by the world so as to pronounce ODR as the best available dispute resolution.
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