[governance] AP Forum on Sustainable Development

Wed Apr 6 09:46:42 EDT 2016

Hi All

Over the last 6 days I was at the Asia Pacific (AP) Forum on Sustainable
Development, which is an annual event of the Asia Pacific's Regional UN
Commission ( UN Economic and Social Commission for the Asia Pacific)
..There is a civil society network of over 250 AP civil society
organisations, called the AP Regional CSOs (Civil Society Organisations)
Engagement Mechanism, which met for three days prior to the official forum.

The Science and Technology constituency of this civil society network
prepared a constituency statement, which has a part on Internet/ data
issues. It also gave a shorter statement to the official forum. Both are
enclosed.

Excerpts from the shorter statement submitted to the official Forum

(begins)
The Agenda 2030 puts emphasis on the development and use of data in
service of the SDGs. Data is not only a resource but a vital reality
structuring people's lives, choices and opportunities today. Vast
amounts of data are now held by big businesses unwilling to share the
same to public agencies for public interest purposes. The socialisation
of all data from people's digital social interactions and its use in
public interest is a precondition for reaching the SDGs. Such data
should by default be publicly owned, with transparent collection
methodologies and well-defined regulatory frameworks for collecting
private firms. There should be in place ethical standards in the
collation and dissemination of data that adhere to gender equality and
women’s rights, sexual and reproductive health and rights, communication
rights, right to privacy and equal access to knowledge.
(ends)

Internet/ data related issues from the longer constituency statement

(begins)

*1.3.5. Corporatisation of ICTs, Internet and big data; and reclaiming
them as a global commons *

Internet, as its name suggests, is nothing but people inter-connected,
without the hierarchies of technical and institutional mediation. As a
platform that connects people, the Internet should be governed
democratically and appropriated by countries and communities as a
powerful force for equality and social justice. The Internet today is
however greatly commodified, with corporations mediating people's
relationships, surveilling them, and predicting and controlling their
behaviour, in pursuit of profits. Instead of bringing people to new
frontiers of self determination, digital innovation is captured within
the walled gardens of software applications that serve the interests of
their corporate owners. Though derived from public laboratories,
Internet technologies are today almost entirely privatised. In fact,
even their governance is privatised, in the hands of the Internet
industry itself.

The Internet must be freed. It should be governed democratically,
towards egalitarian outcomes. Internet platforms must be collaborative
spaces, controlled by their users. Big data should be owned by and
employed for the best interests of the people, to whom such data
originally belongs.

Recent developments indicate that abuse of biometrics, DNA profiling and
other invasive technologies combined with big data for profit,
surveillance and invasion of privacy without any safeguards - such as
unique identity platforms like Aadhar in India – are emerging as serious
threats (in South Asia at least – encompassing India, Pakistan,
Bangladesh and Nepal). This potential abuse of science and science based
technologies – in the name of promoting development - needs to be
questioned and resisted.

The SDGs document puts great emphasis on the use of big data, and on
strengthening of national statistical agencies for better employment of
data in the service of the SDGs. However, this requires that countries
must put in place the necessary legislative safeguards that guarantee
people's rights with respect to their data. Data is not only a resource
to be used for development. Data is a vital reality structuring people's
lives, choices and opportunities today. Of deep concern is the fact that
'public data' is held by private corporations motivated purely by
monopolistic control and unwilling to share the same to public agencies
for public interest purposes. This undesirable situation requires that
the basic issue of who owns social data generated over digital 'social'
platforms be addressed. Such data should by default be publicly owned,
with the collating private corporation licensed to make limited
profit-motivated use of it within well-defined regulatory frameworks.
The socialisation of all Internet-based big data that originates from
people's digital social interactions over the Internet and its use in
public interest is a precondition for reaching the SDGs.

In this regard, both the Internet as the people's inter-connectivity
infrastructure, and big data as the people's digital footprints over the
Internet, should be claimed and governed as a real commons.

(ends)

parminder
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