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Anonymity and software agents: An interdisciplinary challenge

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Abstract

Software agents that play a role in E-commerce and E-government applications involving the Internet often contain information about the identity of their human user such as credit cards and bank accounts. This paper discusses whether this is necessary: whether human users and software agents are allowed to be anonymous under the relevant legal regimes and whether an adequate interaction and balance between law and anonymity can be realised from both the perspective of Computer Systems and the perspective of Law.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Intelligent Interactive Distributed Systems, Faculty of Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1081a, 1081 HV, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Frances Brazier & Niek Wijngaards

  2. Computer and Law Institute, Faculty of Law, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1105, 1081 HV, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Anja Oskamp

  3. TILT, Tilburg Institute for Law, Technology and Society, Faculty of Law, Tilburg University, P.O. Box 90153, 5000 LE, Tilburg, The Netherlands

    Corien Prins & Maurice Schellekens

Authors
  1. Frances Brazier
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  2. Anja Oskamp
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  3. Corien Prins
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  4. Maurice Schellekens
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  5. Niek Wijngaards
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Niek Wijngaards.

Additional information

This paper is an extended and fully revised version of Brazier, Kubbe, Oskamp and Wijngaards (2002) and Brazier, Oskamp, Prins, Schellekens and Wijngaards (2003).

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Brazier, F., Oskamp, A., Prins, C. et al. Anonymity and software agents: An interdisciplinary challenge. Artif Intell Law 12, 137–157 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10506-004-6488-5

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