IGF 2018 WS #399
Balancing data protection & access to information: RTB case

Organizer 1: Marcelo dos Anjos, ARTIGO 19
Organizer 2: Maria Paz Canales, Derechos Digitales
Organizer 3: Agustina Del Campo, CELE (Center for Studies on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information)

Speaker 1: Agustina Del Campo, Civil Society, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
Speaker 2: Bertoni Eduardo, Government, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
Speaker 3: Paulo Lara, Civil Society, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
Speaker 4: Kyung Sin Park, Civil Society, Asia-Pacific Group

Moderator

Maria Paz Canales

Online Moderator

Marcelo Blanco

Rapporteur

Marcelo Blanco

Format

Birds of a Feather - 90 Min

Interventions

Paulo Lara - ARTICLE19 (South America) (confirmed)
Agustina del Campo - CELE (Argentina) (confirmed)
Dr. Eduardo Bertoni - Head of the Agencia de Acceso a la Información Publica (Argentina) (confirmed)
KS Park - Dynamic Coalition on Publicness (South Korea) (confirmed)
Maria Paz Canales - Derechos Digitales (América Latina) (confirmed)
We shall start with a description on how the Agencia de Acceso a la Información Publica combines its duties as an agency for both access to information and data protection and also the perspective of its representative on the “right to be forgotten”. Following, derechos digitales will offer a perspective from the Latin American civil society in order to expose the risks of the “right to be forgotten” in unstable democracies as well as the connection between such risks and the internet use. Profesor KS Park will provide his inside working as part of the Dynamic Coalition on Publicness with extensive research and discussions accumulated in this issue in a variety of jurisdictions. In the end, CELE, from Argentina, will offer studies and perspectives which embrace protection, access and freedom of speech, pointing out the importance of the internet and the flow of information for the consolidation of democracies.

Diversity

The proposed speakers include experts working in the proposed topic in the global south from civil society organisations, government and academic institutions.

The session aims to discuss the “right to be forgotten” as a paradigm and example for the need to think about the relationship between access to information and personal data protection, besides outlining and problematizing the idea of a right to obliteration, and the role of the internet over such issues. This central element will subsidize a discussion that seeks to understand the balance, difficulties and themes which are important within the perspective of personal data, memory, history and the role of the internet in these relations. Thus, in addition to the themes mentioned above, we intend to understand how the right to freedom of expression, access to information and privacy can find a common basis which guarantees these rights while preventing forgetfulness and abuse or erasure of data .

Each speaker will have 10 minutes to present his or her perspective on the theme which they were entitled. Each contribution is thought to introduce or complement another, so that the sequence of the contributions becomes in the end a cohesive and comprehensible whole. At the same time, particularities related to the experience and work of each of the organizations will be punctuated in order to engage the public with facts, information and specificity. After each one of the individual talks, in case there are interventions from the online audience, the time of 5 minutes (up to a maximum of 20 minutes in total) will be given for the discussion and reply of the speaker. At the end, the onsite audience will have 20 minutes of questions and interventions to engage in the debate with all speakers, also mediated by the local facilitator.

In a time when many people advocate for either enhanced data protection or full access to information, we intend to discuss the necessary balance between the two, considering as a trigger for the discussion the idea of “the right to be forgotten”. Recently, this concept has been used to discuss the right of data erasure of an individual who wishes to withdraw hers records from the internet. Thinking of the importance of databases, archives and public information to matters such as history, memory, democracy and human rights exercise, we aim to point out the importance of the internet governance in thinking and acting over such cases and about the right balance between data protection and access to information in order to deliver either more knowledge and privacy. This is of particular importance in global south, where the fragile democracies still struggle with the reminiscences of dictatorial regimes and attempts to erase memory and history. With the internet, the possibility of an open and transparent history and records are available and it is necessary to combine such availability with the increasing need to protect private data for public in general.

Online Participation

The panel is thought to have an exclusive online moderator who will be in constant contact with the session onsite facilitator. Besides a hashtag on twitter, we will announce the link for a telegram and whatsapp group/contact where participants are welcomed to write or record questions and commentaries. If the question is recorded, it will be played for all to listen, and if it is written it will be read by the session facilitator after a selection made by the online moderator.