[governance] Dynamic Coalition on Privacy launched at UN Internet Meeting in Athens

[Ralf Bendrath]

*Press Release / IGF outcome on Privacy Protection*

Press Contacts:

Gus Hosein
Information Systems Group at the London School of Economics and Political
Science
(+44) 797 046 2041
Email: i.hosein at lse.ac.uk

Ralf Bendrath
Collaborative Research Center “Transformations of the State”, University
of Bremen
(+49) 179 215 4614
Email: bendrath at zedat.fu-berlin.de


*Dynamic Coalition on Privacy launched at UN Internet Meeting in Athens*
IGF participants kick off process for privacy in digital identity
management, development, and freedom of expression

Athens, 2 November 2006.

At the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), a UN conference on future internet
public policy taking place in Athens this week, a diverse group of
stakeholders has agreed to launch a Dynamic Coalition on Privacy, which
will address emerging issues of internet privacy protection such as
digital identities, the link between privacy and development, and the
importance of privacy and anonymity for freedom of expression. It will
initiate an open process to further develop and clarify the public policy
aspects of privacy in internet governance in the perspective of the next
IGF meeting in Brazil in 2007. The group will use online collaboration
tools as well as facilitate meetings at related events all over the world
throughout the year. Participants in Athens in particular agreed that
there is a need for greater public participation in technical and legal
standardizations that have a global public policy impact on privacy. They
also emphasised that it is important to better include perspectives from
developing countries in these processes.

One of the main outcomes of the IGF is the creation of "dynamic
coalitions" or multi-stakeholder groups working together on a common issue
over a multi-year process. The Dynamic Coalition on Privacy is a direct
outcome of two privacy workshops at the IGF on 31 October, co-organized by
the Information Systems Group at the LSE and the University of Bremen. It
also reflects discussions held during the IGF main session on
cyber-security as well as the IGF workshops on "Human Rights and the
Internet" organized by the Council of Europe and on an "Internet Bill of
Rights" organized by the Government of Italy together with IP Justice and
the Internet Society of Italy. It builds upon several months of
multi-stakeholder collaboration in the run-up to the UN meeting in Athens.

Start-up actors include representatives from

- Privacy International
- "Privacy and Identity Management in Europe" (PRIME) Project
- Association for Progressive Communication (APC)
- Microsoft
- Amnesty International
- French Government
- Council of Europe (to be confirmed)
- Privacy Commissioner of Canada
- WSIS Civil Society Working Group on Privacy and Security
- North American Consumer Project on Electronic Commerce (NACPEC)
- Net Dialogue of Harvard's Berkman Center and Stanford's Center for
Internet and Society
- OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media
- LSE Information Systems Group
- American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
- University of Bremen
- Internet Service Providers' Association of South Africa
- Hellenic Data Protection Authority
- IP Justice
- European Digital Rights (EDRi)
- Danish Human Rights Institute
- Electronic Frontier Finland
- Independent Centre for Privacy Protection in Kiel, Germany
- WISeKey
- Digital Rights Ireland,
- Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR)
- Privaterra
- Deutsche Vereinigung für Datenschutz (DVD)
- Metamorphosis Foundation
- Kuwait Information Technology Society
- Japan Computer Access for Empowerment (JCAFE)
- Netzwerk Neue Medien (NNM)
- Identity Commons Working Group on Identity Rights Agreements
- Cyberlaw Asia

The coalition is open to interested parties and will start a global
process to engage more stakeholders over the next year. Therefore, the
start-up actors call for people interested in or willing to join the work
of this coalition and for recommending other stakeholders that should be
contacted.

The French government has offered to host a follow-up meeting in Paris in
early 2007.

For more information:

LSE Identity Project
http://identityproject.lse.ac.uk/

Privacy International
http://www.privacyinternational.org/

The Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Harvard Law School
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/

general information on the Internet Governance Forum (IGF)
http://www.intgovforum.org


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