Addressing Legal and Ethical Considerations of Electronic Trust Certificates in Validating Engineering Projects

The objective of this study is to investigate the basic elements regarding the electronic authentication certificate, which is issued by the electronic authentication service provider, who collects personal information directly from the person concerned, and may obtain it from a third party after obtaining the written or electronic consent of this person. The results of this analytical study revealed that legislator in the Electronic Communications and Transactions Law stipulated that trust service providers must obtain the necessary license from the competent administrative authority before practicing the activity, while the UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Signatures did not stipulate this. The legislator recognized the validity of the authentication certificate issued by the trust service provider as long as it meets the requirements specified by a decision issued by the competent authority. The trust certificate service provider is liable for tortious liability, whenever its elements of error, damage and a causal relationship between them are present. It arises when there is no contractual relationship between the trust certificate service provider and the non-affected parties. The description of a third party here includes any person who is not directly linked to a contract with the trust service provider.