5 things you
need to know
about
Information Technology
- Information technology is a vast and complex area. It is important to understand the nexus between IT, IP, Data and Privacy to navigate how risk is allocated and where your responsibilities lie.
- Although each deal is different, most IT transactions revolve around a limited number of documents. If you are thinking of engaging a developer - or you are a developer yourself - you will likely need to review or draft a master services agreement. As with most project-based documents, it is critical to ensure that the agreement clarifies deliverables, milestones and payments.
- The continued expansion of cloud computing and trend toward outsourcing of infrastructure maintenance has led to an increase in the complexity of consequential agreements. Whether you are a vendor or customer, it is important to ensure that you have done sufficient due diligence and you are satisfied that disaster recovery and business continuity plans are in place.
- If you are entering agreements online, make sure you are still satisfying the legal requirements for the contract. Although there is extensive commentary about agreeing to contracts online in Australia, legislation such as the Electronic Transactions Act 1999 (Cth) does not mean that you can avoid the well-established principles about formation of a contract.
- Information technology and privacy are closely related areas of law. Consideration of any information technology issue must also contemplate the consequences for privacy obligations.
