Electronic and mobile commerce involve unique legal and audit risksdue to the proliferation of technologies now on offer. Governance andaccountability issues associated with disruptive technologies, such as peer-to-peertechnologies, spamming and wireless technologies, are particularlychallenging. This paper reviews the impact of peer-to-peer frameworks in alegal and audit context with a view to elaborating business risks and policyimplications of disruptive technologies for governments, managers andknowledge workers. The requirement for forensic auditing is addressed, and thechallenges posed to genuine commercial activity by lawful intercept andsovereign risk are canvassed, in addition to incipient threats to intellectualproperty audit (i.e. technical diligence). Knowledge workers (includingmanagers) should be aware of their expanding legal accountabilities and of therequirement for corporate accountability when adopting peer-to-peer businessmodels or any other class of disruptive technology. The proposed AccountabilityFramework adumbrated in this paper encompasses three key sub-systems.
