Acting independently, a single government is unable to guarantee that a person will be accorded certain rights in cyberspace; likewise, it cannot necessarily ensure that a person fulfils his or her duties (e.g., paying taxes) when acting in cyberspace.

Personhood in Traditional Terms

For better or worse, states traditionally have made distinctions among persons and applied different sets of rights and responsibilities to respective groups. In places that have high regard for the rule of law, there are usually objective criteria spelling out when a person fits into a given category -- such as a person enjoying citizenship or a company receiving treatment as a "juridical" person.

Challenges for Personhood in Cyberspace

With no clear jurisdictional lines in cyberspace (see "jurisdiction"), persons cannot be sure which set of rights and responsibilities apply to their online activities.

International Cooperation to Address These Challenges

Acting independently, a single government is unable to guarantee that people will be accorded citizenship or personhood in Net matters, and people lack the assurances that come with such status. Though governments are wrangling over the question of jurisdiction in cyberspace, their focus on citizenship and personhood has largely been limited to enabling electronic contracting and protecting consumers (see "relations between private parties"), and to ironing out an Net taxation framework. With heightened security concerns, however, governments have also been collaborating on systems for tracking individuals and monitoring their communications in the networked world.