Centre for Internet and Society

New privacy Bill more refined & has wider ambit, say experts

praskrishna — 2014-04-03T11:06:51Z

But creates wide exceptions for government agencies.

The article by Surabhi Agarwal was published in the Business Standard on April 2, 2014. CIS welcomes changes in the Bill but is cautious of the wide exceptions.

The government’s latest attempt to draft a privacy Bill is being termed by as a refined one by experts as it expands its ambit.

However, the Bill creates some wide exceptions for law enforcement and intelligence agencies to collect personal information of individuals. The government has made several attempts at drafting a privacy Bill since 2010, with the aim of protecting individuals against data misuse by government or private agencies.

The first draft, released in 2011, extended the Right to Privacy to citizens of India. But, the 2014 version has expanded its ambit to cover all residents of the country. The 2014 Bill also recognises the Right to Privacy as a part of Article 21 of the Indian Constitution and extends to the whole of India. In contrast, the 2011 Bill did not explicitly recognise the Right to Privacy as being a part of Article 21, and excluded Jammu and Kashmir from its purview.

Both the drafts include a list of circumstances under which authorisation for the collection and processing of sensitive personal data is not required. The lists are broadly the same. However, the latest version exempts insurance company and government intelligence agencies collecting or processing data “in the interest of the sovereignty, integrity, security or the strategic, scientific or economic interest of India.”

A Bangalore-based Internet think-tank Centre for Internet and Society said it welcomed many changes in the Bill, but were cautious on the wide exceptions.

“The Bill carves out another exception for government agencies, allowing disclosure of sensitive personal data without consent to government agencies mandated under law for the purposes of verification of identity, or for prevention, detection, investigation, including cyber incidents, prosecution and punishment of offences,” the Centre for Internet and Society said in a note analysing the provisions of the Bill.

The privacy Bill was originally conceptualised to ensure the data collected by the government under various new projects such as Aadhaar or the National Information Grid (NATGRID) are not misused in any way. But incidents, such as the tapping of phone conversations involving former lobbyist Niira Radia, prompted the government to expand the ambit of the privacy law from just being a data protection one to also cover surveillance and interception.

However, it was unable to reach a consensus due to inter-ministerial conflicts as the law was superseding various provisions under several existing legislations.

The government also set up a committee under retired Delhi high court judge Ajit P Shah under the aegis of the Planning Commission to study international best practices on privacy and surveillance. This committee filed a report in 2012.

Some additions to the Bill include the term personal identifier, defined by any unique alphanumeric sequence of members, letters, and symbols that specifically identifies an individual with a database or a data set.

The Bill has also re-defined sensitive personal data to denote personal data relating to physical and mental health, including medical history, biometric, bodily or genetic information, criminal convictions, password, banking credit and financial data, narco analysis or polygraph test data and sexual orientation.

Once the law comes into being, the government or a private agency will have to adequately inform citizens before collecting data, stating the reasons and only collecting as much information as is necessary.

It will also have to clearly define the time period for which the data will be stored and the security measures taken to protect it from misuse. The law also lays down the penalties in case of a breach.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/business-standard-april-3-2014-surabhi-agarwal-new-privacy-bill-more-refined-has-wider-ambit-say-experts

New Document on India's Central Monitoring System (CMS) - 2

maria — 2014-01-30T12:40:31Z

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/new-cms-doc-2

New Bill to decide on individual’s right to privacy

praskrishna — 2012-02-07T07:19:07Z

A group of experts would identify issues relating to privacy and prepare a report to facilitate authoring the Privacy Bill. Vishwajoy Mukherjee's article was published in Tehelka on 6 February 2012.

American jurist William J Brennan once famously remarked, “If the right to privacy means anything, it is the right of the individual to be free from unwarranted governmental intrusion.” Now the Government of India is on the verge of formulating, for the first time, a Privacy Bill that will lay down a specific framework to adjudicate an individual’s right to privacy.

The Planning Commission has constituted a small group of experts under the chairmanship of Justice A P Shah, former Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court, to identify issues relating to privacy and prepare a paper to facilitate authoring the Privacy Bill. The group will be studying the privacy laws and related bills promulgated by other countries and will also be analysing the impact of various programmes being implemented by the government, from the perspective of their impact on privacy. A detailed report with suggestions and remarks will then be handed to the Planning Commission by 31 March.

In the run-up to the formulation of a new Privacy Bill in India, an All India Privacy Symposium was held on 4 February to discuss aspects of privacy in the context of transparency, national security and internet banking. One of the most vociferous oppositions to the idea of privacy becoming an enshrined right for individuals, has come from those who believe that national security is of paramount importance. “The notion that one has to choose between privacy and national security is a false dichotomy of choice… When the judiciary adjudicates between privacy and surveillance, privacy in almost all cases loses. Especially when the word terrorism is invoked,” said Oxblood Ruffin, a member of the Cult of the Dead Cow, an information security and publishing collective. Speaking at the conference Ruffin stressed on the idea that the State shouldn’t act as a “peeping Tom” but instead respect the “sovereignty of its people.”

One of the more stark examples, in recent years, of the State clamping down on individual rights, such as the right to privacy, on the pretext of national security, is the Patriot Act in America. The Patriot Act was passed in the United States of America in the immediate aftermath of the September 2001 attacks on the twin towers, and allowed the government to scrutinise everything from “suspicious” bank accounts to wire-tapping lines of communication. Menaka Guruswamy, a lawyer at the Supreme Court of India, believes that unlike America, India does not yet have a codified view on privacy. “Privacy is a vast, fragile, and an open space in the Indian justice system,” she told Tehelka.

Though India doesn’t have clearly defined laws dealing with the issue of privacy, it does have certain directives under which surveillance methods such as wire-tapping can be done. Wire-tapping, which is regulated under the Telegraph Act of 1885, saw a major overhaul in a 1996 Supreme Court judgment, which ruled that wire-taps are a "serious invasion of an individual's privacy." The Supreme Court (SC) recognised the fact that the right to privacy is an integral part of the fundamental right to life enshrined under Article 21 of the Constitution, and therefore laid down guidelines defining who can tap phones and under what circumstances. Only the Union Home Secretary, or his counterpart in the states, can issue an order for a tap, and the government is also required to show that the information sought cannot to be obtained through any other means. The SC mandated the development of a high-level committee to review the legality of each wire-tap.

“Interceptions and intrusions by the state have often gone on to help exonerate people who have been falsely accused, so I think it would be unfair to demonise wire-tapping in general. One does have to ensure though, that those who intercept exchanges do not exceed limits,” said a former chief of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW).

Besides the dimension of privacy versus surveillance, another important aspect which comes under the scanner when privacy laws are discussed is Internet banking. Details of personal bank accounts and other highly sensitive information of individuals have been whizzing around the cyber space with the advent of E-banking. Everything from booking tickets for movies and flights, to transferring money between accounts is happening via computers, and is happening fast. This growing trend has sparked a major debate on how safe is our information on the web, and what can the government do to secure it? In May 2000, the government passed the Information Technology Act, which laid down a set of laws intended to provide a comprehensive regulatory environment for electronic commerce.

The Act also addressed computer crimes such as hacking, damage to computer source code, breach of confidentiality and viewing of pornography and created a Cyber Appellate Tribunal to oversee and adjudicate cyber crimes. However, at the same time, the legislation gave broad discretion to law enforcement authorities through several provisions, such as Section 69, allowing the interception of any information transmitted through a computer resource and mandates that users disclose encryption keys or face a jail sentence up to seven years. Section 80 of the Act allows deputy superintendents of police to conduct searches and seize suspects in public spaces without a warrant.

“Confidentiality between banker and customer is the golden rule of traditional banking, but with the coming of E-banking, banks are using confidentiality as an excuse for not putting out data that shows how vulnerable they are to cyber crimes like hacking,” said N Vijayashankar, an E-business consultant, and a front runner in raising awareness about cyber laws in India. He said, “When framing privacy laws one has to ensure that banks are mandated to disclose data on breach of Internet security. That is the only way to ensure that banks take the necessary steps to secure customer information.” Malavika Jairam, a lawyer who focuses on technology and intellectual property, believes that allowing private participation in what should essentially be a sovereign State function is a dangerous path to tread on. “Tesco, a major retail chain in England, is now into E-banking… There are numerous examples of such private banking entities sharing customer information with insurance policy firms. These details are often used as markers for the kind of premium that will be set for a person,” Jairam said.

With the current pace of technological advancements fast thinning the line between individual privacy and public content, it remains to be seen what kind of privacy laws India will frame to keep up.

The original was published by Tehelka, Malavika Jayaram, a Fellow at CIS is quoted in it.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/new-bill-to-decide-on-individual2019s-right-to-privacy

New Approaches to Information Privacy – Revisiting the Purpose Limitation Principle

amber — 2016-11-09T13:54:28Z

Article on Aadhaar throwing light on privacy and data protection.

This was published in Digital Policy Portal on July 13, 2016.

Introduction

Last year, Mukul Rohatgi, the Attorney General of India, called into question existing jurisprudence of the last 50 years on the constitutional validity of the right to privacy.¹ Mohatgi was rebutting the arguments on privacy made against Aadhaar, the unique identity project initiated and implemented in the country without any legislative mandate.² The question of the right to privacy becomes all the more relevant in the context of events over the last few years—among them, the significant rise in data collection by the state through various e-governance schemes,³ systematic access to personal data by various wings of the state through a host of surveillance and law enforcement initiatives launched in the last decade,⁴ the multifold increase in the number of Indians online, and the ubiquitous collection of personal data by private parties.⁵

These developments have led to a call for a comprehensive privacy legislation in India and the adoption of the National Privacy Principles as laid down by the Expert Committee led by Justice AP Shah.⁶ There are privacy-protection legislation currently in place such as the Information Technology Act, 2000 (IT Act), which was enacted to govern digital content and communication and provide legal recognition to electronic transactions. This legislation has provisions that can safeguard—and dilute—online privacy. At the heart of the data protection provisions in the IT Act lies section 43A and the rules framed under it, i.e., Reasonable security practices and procedures and sensitive personal data information.⁷Section 43A mandates that body corporates who receive, possess, store, deal, or handle any personal data to implement and maintain ‘reasonable security practices’, failing which, they are held liable to compensate those affected. Rules drafted under this provision also mandated a number of data protection obligations on corporations such the need to seek consent before collection, specifying the purposes of data collection, and restricting the use of data to such purposes only. There have been questions raised about the validity of the Section 43A Rules as they seek to do much more than mandate in the parent provisions, Section 43A— requiring entities to maintain reasonable security practices.

Privacy as control?

Even setting aside the issue of legal validity, the kind of data protection framework envisioned by Section 43A rules is proving to be outdated in the context of how data is now being collected and processed. The focus of Section 43 A Rules—as well as that of draft privacy legislations in India⁸—is based on the idea of individual control. Most apt is Alan Westin’s definition of privacy: “the claim of individuals, groups, or institutions to determine for themselves when, how, and to what extent information about them is communicated to other.”⁹ Westin and his followers rely on the normative idea of “informational self- determination”, the notion of a pure, disembodied, and atomistic self, capable of making rational and isolated choices in order to assert complete control over personal information. More and more this has proved to be a fiction especially in a networked society.

Much before the need for governance of information technologies had reached a critical mass in India, Western countries were already dealing with the implications of the use of these technologies on personal data. In 1973, the US Department of Health, Education and Welfare appointed a committee to address this issue, leading to a report called ‘Records, Computers and Rights of Citizens.’¹⁰ The Committee’s mandate was to “explore the impact of computers on record keeping about individuals and, in addition, to inquire into, and make recommendations regarding, the use of the Social Security number.” The Report articulated five principles which were to be the basis of fair information practices: transparency; use limitation; access and correction; data quality; and security. Building upon these principles, the Committee of Ministers of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) arrived at the Guidelines on the Protection of Privacy and Transborder Flows of Personal Data in 1980.¹¹ These principles— Collection Limitation, Data Quality, Purpose Specification, Use Limitation, Security Safeguards, Openness, Individual Participation and Accountability—are what inform most data protection regulations today including the APEC Framework, the EU Data Protection Directive, and the Section 43A Rules and Justice AP Shah Principles in India.

Fred Cate describes the import of these privacy regimes as such:

“All of these data protection instruments reflect the same approach: tell individuals what data you wish to collect or use, give them a choice, grant them access, secure those data with appropriate technologies and procedures, and be subject to third-party enforcement if you fail to comply with these requirements or individuals’ expressed preferences”¹²

This is in line with Alan Westin’s idea of privacy exercised through individual control. Therefore the focus of these principles is on empowering the individuals to exercise choice, but not on protecting individuals from harmful or unnecessary practices of data collection and processing. The author of this article has earlier written¹³ about the sheer inefficacy of this framework which places the responsibility on individuals. Other scholars like Daniel Solove,¹⁴ Jonathan Obar¹⁵ and Fred Cate¹⁶ have also written about the failure of traditional data protection practices of notice and consent. While these essays dealt with the privacy principles of choice and informed consent, this paper will focus on the principles of purpose limitation.

Purpose Limitation and Impact of Big Data

The principles of purpose limitation or purpose specification seeks to ensure the following four objectives:

Personal information collected and processed should be adequate and relevant to the purposes for which they are processed.
The entities collect, process, disclose, make available, or otherwise use personal information only for the stated purposes.
In case of change in purpose, the data’s subject needs to be informed and their consent has to be obtained.
After personal information has been used in accordance with the identified purpose, it has to be destroyed as per the identified procedures.

The purpose limitation along with the data minimisation principle—which requires that no more data may be processed than is necessary for the stated purpose—aim to limit the use of data to what is agreed to by the data subject. These principles are in direct conflict with new technology which relies on ubiquitous collection and indiscriminate uses of data. The main import of Big Data technologies on the inherent value in data which can be harvested not by the primary purposes of data collection but through various secondary purposes which involve processing of the data repeatedly.¹⁷Further, instead to destroying the data when its purpose has been achieved, the intent is to retain as much data as possible for secondary uses. Importantly, as these secondary uses are of an inherently unanticipated nature, it becomes impossible to account for it at the stage of collection and providing the choice to the data subject.

Followers of the discourse on Big Data would be well aware of its potential impacts on privacy. De-identification techniques to protect the identities of individuals in dataset face a threat from an increase in the amount of data available either publicly or otherwise to a party seeking to reverse-engineer an anonymised dataset to re-identify individuals. ¹⁸ Further, Big Data analytics promise to find patterns and connections that can contribute to the knowledge available to the public to make decisions. What is also likely is that it will lead to revealing insights about people that they would have preferred to keep private.¹⁹In turn, as people become more aware of being constantly profiled by their actions, they will self-regulate and ‘discipline’ their behaviour. This can lead to a chilling effect.²⁰ Meanwhile, Big Data is also fuelling an industry that incentivises businesses to collect more data, as it has a high and growing monetary value. However, Big Data also promises a completely new kind of knowledge that can prove to be revolutionary in fields as diverse as medicine, disaster-management, governance, agriculture, transport, service delivery, and decision-making.²¹ As long as there is a sufficiently large and diverse amount of data, there could be invaluable insights locked in it, accessing which can provide solutions to a number of problems. In light of this, it is important to consider what kind of regulatory framework is most suitable which could facilitate some of the promised benefits of Big Data and at the same time mitigate its potential harm. This, coupled with the fact that the existing data protection principles have, by most accounts, run their course, makes the examination of alternative frameworks even more important. This article will examine some alternate proposals made to the existing framework of purpose limitation below.

Harms-based approach

Some scholars like Fred Cate²² and Daniel Solove²³ have argued that there is a need for the primary focus of data protection law to move from control at the stage of data collection to actual use cases. In his article on the failure of Fair Information Practice Principles,²⁴Cate puts forth a proposal for ‘Consumer Privacy Protection Principles.’ Cate envisions a more interventionist role of the data protection authorities by regulating information flows when required, in order to protect individuals from risky or harmful uses of information. Cate’s attempt is to extend the principles of consumer protection law of prevention and remedy of harms.

In a re-examination of the OECD Privacy Principles, Cate and Viktor Mayer Schöemberger attempt to discard the use of personal data to only purposes specified. They felt that restricting the use of personal to only specified purposes could significantly threaten various research and beneficial uses of Big Data. Instead of articulating a positive obligations of what personal data collected could be used for, they attempt to arrive at a negative obligation of use-cases prevented by law. Their working definition of the Use specification principle broaden the scope of use cases by only preventing use of data “if the use is fraudulent, unlawful, deceptive or discriminatory; society has deemed the use inappropriate through a standard of unfairness; the use is likely to cause unjustified harm to the individual; or the use is over the well-founded objection of the individual, unless necessary to serve an over-riding public interest, or unless required by law.”²⁵

While most standards in the above definition have established understanding in jurisprudence, the concept of unjustifiable harm is what we are interested in. Any theory of harms-based approach goes back to John Stuart Mill’s dictum that the only justifiable purpose to exert power over the will of an individual is to prevent harm to others. Therefore, any regulation that seeks to control or prevent autonomy of individuals (in this case, the ability of individuals to allow data collectors to use their personal data, and the ability of data collectors to do so, without any limitation) must clearly demonstrate the harm to the individuals in question.

Fred Cate articulates the following steps to identify tangible harm and respond to its presence:²⁶

Focus on Use — Actual use of the data should be considered, not mere possession. The assumption is that the collection, possession, or transfer of information do not significantly harm people, rather it is the use of information following such collection, possession, or transfer.
Proportionality — Any regulatory measure must be proportional to the likelihood and severity of the harm identified.
Per se Harmful Uses — Uses which are always harmful must be prohibited by law
Per se not Harmful Uses — If uses can be considered inherently not harmful, they should not be regulated.
Sensitive Uses — In case where the uses are not per se harmful or not harmful, individual consent must be sought for using that data for those purposes.

The proposal by Cate argues for what is called a ‘use based system’, which is extremely popular with American scholars. Under this system, data collection itself is not subject to restrictions; rather, only the use of data is regulated. This argument has great appeal for both businesses who can reduce their overheads significantly if consent obligations are done away with as long as they use the data in ways which are not harmful, as well as critics of the current data protection framework which relies on informed consent. Lokke Moerel explains the philosophy of ‘harms based approach’ or ‘use based system’ in United States by juxtaposing it against the ‘rights based approach’ in Europe.²⁷ In Europe, rights of individuals with regard to processing of their personal data is a fundamental human right and therefore, a precautionary principle is followed with much greater top-down control upon data collection. However, in the United States, there is a far greater reliance on market mechanisms and self-regulating organisations to check inappropriate processing activities, and government intervention is limited to cases where a clear harm is demonstrable.²⁸

Continuing research by the Centre for Information Policy Leadership under its Privacy Risk Framework Project looks at a system of articulating what harms and risks arising from use of collected data. They have arrived a matrix of threats and harms. Threats are categorised as —a) inappropriate use of personal information and b) personal information in the wrong hands. More importantly for our purposes, harms are divided into: a) tangible harms which are physical or economic in nature (bodily harm, loss of liberty, damage to earning power and economic interests); b) intangible harms which can be demonstrated (chilling effects, reputational harm, detriment from surveillance, discrimination and intrusion into private life); and c) societal harm (damage to democratic institutions and loss of social trust).²⁹For any harms-based system, a matrix like above needs to emerge clearly so that regulation can focus on mitigating practices leading to the harms.

Legitimate interests

Lokke Moerel and Corien Prins, in their article “Privacy for Homo Digitalis – Proposal for a new regulatory framework for data protection in the light of Big Data and Internet of Things”³⁰ use the ideal of responsive regulation which considers empirically observable practices and institutions while determining the regulation and enforcement required. They state that current data protection frameworks—which rely on mandating some principles of how data has to be processed—is exercised through merely procedural notification and consent requirements. Further, Moerel and Prins feel that data protection law cannot only involve a consideration of individual interest but also needs to take into account collective interest. Therefore, the test must be a broader assessment than merely the purpose limitation articulating the interests of the parties directly involved, but whether a legitimate interest is achieved.

Legitimate interest has been put forth as an alternative to the purpose limitation. Legitimate is not a new concept and has been a part of the EU Data Protection Directive and also finds a place in the new General Data Protection Regulation. Article 7 (f) of the EU Directive³¹ provided for legitimate interest balanced against the interests or fundamental rights and freedoms of the data subject as the last justifiable reason for use of data. Due to confusion in its interpretation, the Article 29 Working Party, in 2014,³²looked into the role of legitimate interest and arrived at the following factors to determine the presence of a legitimate interest— a) the status of the individual (employee, consumer, patient) and the controller (employer, company in a dominant position, healthcare service); b) the circumstances surrounding the data processing (contract relationship of data subject and processor); c) the legitimate expectations of the individual.

Federico Ferretti has criticised the legitimate interest principle as vague and ambiguous. The balancing of legitimate interest in using the data against fundamental rights and freedoms of the data subject gives the data controllers some degree of flexibility in determining whether data may be processed; however, this also reduces the legal certainty that data subject have of their data not being used for purposes they have not agreed to.³³However, it is this paper’s contention that it is not the intent of the legitimate interest criteria but the lack of consensus on its application which creates an ambiguity. Moerel and Prins articulate a test for using legitimate interest which is cognizant of the need to use data for the purpose of Big Data processing, as well as ensuring that the rights of data subjects are not harmed.

As demonstrated earlier, the processing of data and its underlying purposes have become exceedingly complex and the conventional tool to describe these processes ‘privacy notices’ are too lengthy, too complex and too profuse in numbers to have any meaningful impact.³⁴The idea of information self-determination, as contemplated by Westin in American jurisprudence, is not achieved under the current framework. Moerel and Prins recommend five factors³⁵ as relevant in determining the legitimate interest. Of the five, the following three are relevant to the present discussion:

Collective Interest — A cost-benefit analysis should be conducted, which examines the implications for privacy for the data subjects as well as the society, as a whole.
The nature of the data — Rather than having specific categories of data, the nature of data needs to be assessed contextually to determine legitimate interest.
Contractual relationship and consent not independent grounds — This test has two parts. First, in case of contractual relationship between data subject and data controller: the more specific the contractual relationship, the more restrictions apply to the use of the data. Second, consent does not function as a separate principle which, once satisfied, need not be revisited. The nature of the consent (opportunities made available to data subject, opt in/opt out, and others) will continue to play a role in determining legitimate interest.

Conclusion

Replacing the purpose limitation principles with a use-based system as articulated above poses the danger of allowing governments and the private sector to carry out indiscriminate data collection under the blanket guise that any and all data may be of some use in the future. The harms-based approach has many merits and there is a stark need for more use of risk assessments techniques and privacy impact assessments in data governance. However, it is important that it merely adds to the existing controls imposed at data collection, and not replace them in their entirety. On the other hand, the legitimate interests principle, especially as put forth by Moerel and Prins, is more cognizant of the different factors at play — the inefficacy of existing purpose limitation principles, the need for businesses to use data for purposes unidentified at the stage of collection, and the need to ensure that it is not misused for indiscriminate collection and purposes. However, it also poses a much heavier burden on data controllers to take into account various factors before determining legitimate interest. If legitimate interest has to emerge as a realistic alternative to purpose limitation, there needs to be greater clarity on how data controllers must apply this principle.

Endnotes

Prachi Shrivastava, “Privacy not a fundamental right, argues Mukul Rohatgi for Govt as Govt affidavit says otherwise,” Legally India, Jyly 23, 2015, http://www.legallyindia.com/Constitutional-law/privacy-not-a-fundamental-right-argues-mukul-rohatgi-for-govt-as-govt-affidavit-says-otherwise.
Rebecca Bowe, “Growing Mistrust of India’s Biometric ID Scheme,” Electronic Frontier Foundation, May 4, 2012, https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/05/growing-mistrust-india-biometric-id-scheme.
Lisa Hayes, “Digital India’s Impact on Privacy: Aadhaar numbers, biometrics, and more,” Centre for Democracy and Technology, January 20, 2015, https://cdt.org/blog/digital-indias-impact-on-privacy-aadhaar-numbers-biometrics-and-more/.
“India’s Surveillance State,” Software Freedom Law Centre, http://sflc.in/indias-surveillance-state-our-report-on-communications-surveillance-in-india/.
“Internet Privacy in India,” Centre for Internet and Society, http://cis-india.org/telecom/knowledge-repository-on-internet-access/internet-privacy-in-india.
Vivek Pai, “Indian Government says it is still drafting privacy law, but doesn’t give timelines,” Medianama, May 4, 2016, http://www.medianama.com/2016/05/223-government-privacy-draft-policy/.
Information Technology (Intermediaries Guidelines) Rules, 2011,
http://deity.gov.in/sites/upload_files/dit/files/GSR314E_10511%281%29.pdf.
Discussion Points for the Meeting to be taken by Home Secretary at 2:30 pm on 7-10-11 to discuss the drat Privacy Bill, http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/draft-bill-on-right-to-privacy.
Alan Westin, Privacy and Freedom (New York: Atheneum, 2015).
US Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Automated Personal Data Systems, Records, Computers and the Rights of Citizens, http://www.justice.gov/opcl/docs/rec-com-rights.pdf.
OECD Guidelines on the Protection of Privacy and Transborder Flows of Personal Data, http://www.oecd.org/sti/ieconomy/oecdguidelinesontheprotectionofprivacyandtransborderflowsofpersonaldata.htm
Fred Cate, “The Failure of Information Practice Principles,” in Consumer Protection in the Age of the Information Economy, ed. Jane K. Winn (Burlington: Aldershot, Hants, England, 2006) http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1156972.
Amber Sinha and Scott Mason, “A Critique of Consent in Informational Privacy,” Centre for Internet and Society, January 11, 2016, http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/a-critique-of-consent-in-information-privacy.
Daniel Solove, “Privacy self-management and consent dilemma,” Harvard Law Review 126, (2013): 1880.
Jonathan Obar, “Big Data and the Phantom Public: Walter Lippmann and the fallacy of data privacy self management,” Big Data and Society 2(2), (2015), doi: 10.1177/2053951715608876.
Supra Note 12.
Supra Note 14.
Paul Ohm, “Broken Promises of Privacy: Responding to the Surprising Failure of Anonymization” available at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1450006; Arvind Narayanan and Vitaly Shmatikov, “Robust De-anonymization of Large Sparse Datasets” available at https://www.cs.utexas.edu/~shmat/shmat_oak08netflix.pdf.
D. Hirsch, “That’s Unfair! Or is it? Big Data, Discrimination and the FTC’s Unfairness Authority,” Kentucky Law Journal, Vol. 103, available at: http://www.kentuckylawjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/103KyLJ345.pdf
A Marthews and C Tucker, “Government Surveillance and Internet Search Behavior”, available at http://ssrn.com/abstract=2412564; Danah Boyd and Kate Crawford, “Critical Questions for Big Data: Provocations for a cultural, technological, and scholarly phenomenon”, Information, Communication & Society, Vol. 15, Issue 5, (2012).
Scott Mason, “Benefits and Harms of Big Data”, Centre for Internet and Society, available at http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/benefits-and-harms-of-big-data#_ftn37.
Cate, “The Failure of Information Practice Principles.”
Solove, “Privacy self-management and consent dilemma,” 1882.
Cate, “The Failure of Information Practice Principles.”
Fred Cate and Viktor Schoenberger, “Notice and Consent in a world of Big Data,” International Data Privacy Law 3(2), (2013): 69.
Solove, “Privacy self-management and consent dilemma,” 1883.
Lokke Moerel, “Netherlands: Big Data Protection: How To Make The Draft EU Regulation On Data Protection Future Proof”, Mondaq, March 11. 2014, http://www.mondaq.com/x/298416/data+protection/Big+Data+Protection+How+To+Make+The+Dra%20ft+EU+Regulation+On+Data+Protection+Future+Proof%20al%20Lecture.
Moerel, “Netherlands: Big Data Protection.”
Centre for Information Policy Leadership, “A Risk-based Approach to Privacy: Improving Effectiveness in Practice,” Hunton and Williams LLP, June 19, 2014, https://www.informationpolicycentre.com/uploads/5/7/1/0/57104281/white_paper_1-a_risk_based_approach_to_privacy_improving_effectiveness_in_practice.pdf.
Lokke Moerel and Corien Prins, “Privacy for Homo Digitalis: Proposal for a new regulatory framework for data protection in the light of Big Data and Internet of Things”, Social Science Research Network, May 25, 2016, http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2784123.
EU Directive 95/46/EC – The Data Protection Directive, https://www.dataprotection.ie/docs/EU-Directive-95-46-EC-Chapter-2/93.htm.
Article 29 Data Protection Working Party, “Opinion 06/2014 on the notion of legitimate interests of the data controller under Article 7 of Directive 95/46/EC,” http://ec.europa.eu/justice/data-protection/article-29/documentation/opinion-recommendation/files/2014/wp217_en.pdf.
Frederico Ferretti, “Data protection and the legitimate interest of data controllers: Much ado about nothing or the winter of rights?,” Common Market Law Review 51(2014): 1-26. http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/bitstream/2438/9724/1/Fulltext.pdf.
Sinha and Mason, “A Critique of Consent in Informational Privacy.”
Moerel and Prins, “Privacy for Homo Digitalis.”

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/digital-policy-portal-july-13-2016-new-approaches-to-information-privacy-revisiting-the-purpose-limitation-principle

NETmundial Transcript Archive

pranesh — 2014-04-23T14:31:50Z

We are archiving the live transcript from the NETmundial meeting (April 23-24, 2014).

NETmundial Day 1

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>***LIVE SCRIBING BY BREWER & DARRENOUGUE - WWW.QUICKTEXT.COM***
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>>> LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, GOOD MORNING. IN SOME MINUTES WE WILL HAVE OUR OPENING SESSION OF OUR GLOBAL MULTISTAKEHOLDER MEETING ON THE FUTURE OF THE INTERNET GOVERNANCE. PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR MOBILE PHONES OR TURN THEM INTO VIBRATING. PLEASE TAKE YOUR SEATS. OR SHUT IT OFF. THANK YOU VERY MUCH.
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>>> LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, PLEASE TAKE YOUR SEATS AND PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR MOBILE PHONES OR SET THEM INTO SILENT MODE. IN SOME MINUTES, WE ARE GOING TO START OUR OPENING CEREMONY OF OUR GLOBAL MULTISTAKEHOLDER MEETING ON THE FUTURE GOVERNANCE OF THE INTERNET.
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>>> PLEASE TAKE YOUR SEATS AND TURN OFF YOUR MOBILE PHONES OR SET THEM INTO SILENT MODE. IN A FEW MINUTES, WE WILL START OUR OPENING CEREMONY OF THE GLOBAL MULTISTAKEHOLDER MEETING ON THE FUTURE OF INTERNET GOVERNANCE.
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>>> LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, IN SOME MINUTES WE WILL START OFF THE OPENING CEREMONY OF THE GLOBAL MULTISTAKEHOLDER MEETING ON THE FUTURE OF INTERNET GOVERNANCE.
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>[MUSIC ] >> THIS IS MY INTERNET.
>>> THIS IS MY INTERNET.
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>>> LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THE PRESIDENT OF BRAZIL, HER EXCELLENCY DILMA ROUSSEFF. THE CHAIRMAN OF NETmundial, VIRGILIO ALMEIDA, AND THE MIKE RODENBAUGH OF SAO PAULO, THE COO OF ICANN, FADI CHEHADE, AND THE REPRESENTATIVE OF THE TECHNICAL SECTOR AND CREATOR OF THE WEB, TIM BERNERS-LEE. REPRESENTATIVE OF THE PRIVATE SECRETARY AND VICE PRESIDENT OF GOOGLE, VINT CERF, AND THE REPRESENTATIVE OF THE -- OF CIVIL SOCIETY, COFOUNDER, NNENNA NWAKANMA.
>[APPLAUSE ] >> WE ARE STARTING OFF THIS EFFORT AND WE ARE GOING TO LISTEN TO THE NATIONAL ANTHEM OF BRAZIL.
>[ PLAYING OF NATIONAL ANTHEM. ] [APPLAUSE ] >> WE ARE GOING TO LISTEN TO THE WORDS OF THE MINISTER OF COMMUNICATIONS, PAULO BERNARDO.
>>>PAULO BERNARDO SILVA: GOOD MORNING, HER EXCELLENCY DILMA ROUSSEFF, MEMBERS HERE AND PARTICIPANTS OF THIS MEETING.
>LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, WELCOME TO BRAZIL AND TO NETmundial. WE ARE VERY PROUD AND FEEL VERY RESPONSIBLE FOR RECEIVING YOU IN SAO PAULO.
>ALL OF YOU WHO CARE ABOUT INTERNET IN THE FUTURE HAVE REASONS FOR BEING PLEASED WITH WHAT WE ARE GOING TO DO TODAY.
>THIS MEETING IS THE CONCRETIZATION OF ALL OUR WISHES. WE NEEDED AN ADEQUATE ENVIRONMENT FOR THIS TO BE VOICED. WE BELIEVE THAT NETmundial IS THIS ENVIRONMENT WE NEED. FREE PARTICIPANTIVE AND PLURAL, AS WELL AS THE INTERNET WE BELIEVE IN.
>AND THIS IS SO BECAUSE THE CONCERN THAT GETS US TOGETHER IS GREATER THAN THE CONCERNS OF EACH PARTY. WE ARE DISCUSSING THIS INTERNET AROUND THIS TABLE OR OTHERWISE WE WILL HAVE NO FUTURE FOR THE INTERNET FROM THE VERY FIRST MOMENT, THE DIFFERENT STAKEHOLDERS GOT INVOLVED IN THE ORGANIZATION OF THIS EVENT AND THE PROOF OF THIS ENVIRONMENT IS HERE IN THE GREAT DIVERSITY OF CONTRIBUTIONS RECEIVED.
>WE ALSO HAVE HERE MANY AUTHORITIES AND PARTICIPANTS. WE'D LIKE TO THANK EACH ONE OF YOU AND CONGRATULATE EACH ONE OF YOU FROM DIFFERENT COUNTRIES. WE'RE ALL PROTAGONISTS OF AN HISTORICAL MOMENT AND TODAY WHAT WE HAVE BEFORE US IS A CHALLENGE TO MAKE THE MOST FOR ALL THE DIFFERENT OPINIONS IN FAVOR OF A UNIQUE PATH.
>THIS PATH HAS A VERY STRAIGHT SENSE OF ORIENTATION, A FREE AND UNFRAGMENTED INTERNET. THAT'S THE BEST WE CAN HAVE, THE CAPACITY TO CONNECT, TO MOBILIZE, TO INNOVATE, TO CREATE RICHNESS OF CULTURE OR WHATEVER, AND RESPECT THE LINKS. SO INTERNET BEING RULED BY MORE PEOPLE COULD REACH MORE PEOPLE IN THE WORLD.
>SO I WISH THAT WHEN WE LEAVE SAO PAULO, WE CAN 81BRATE A NEW AND PROMISSORY BEGINNING. THIS IS OUR RESPONSIBILITY HERE, AND THANK YOU VERY MUCH. AND HAVE A GOOD MEETING. THANK YOU.
>[APPLAUSE ] >> NOW, MR. HONKING, SECRETARY-GENERAL OF THE UNITED NATIONS FOR BUSINESS MATTERS WILL DELIVER HIS MESSAGE FROM THE SECRETARY-GENERAL, BAN KI-MOON.
>>>WU HONGBO: YOUR EXCELLENCY, PRESIDENT ROUSSEFF, DISTINGUISHED MINISTERS, EXCELLENCIES, DISTINGUISHED DELEGATES, COLLEAGUES, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN.
>I'M HONORED TO BE HERE WITH YOU FOR THIS IMPORTANT EVENT. IT IS MY GREAT PLEASURE TO DELIVER A MESSAGE ON BEHALF OF THE UNITED NATIONS SECRETARY-GENERAL, MR. BAN KI-MOON.
>HERE I QUOTE: I THANK THE GOVERNMENT OF BRAZIL FOR HOSTING THE NETmundial MEETING, AND I COMMEND THIS GLOBAL MULTISTAKEHOLDER NATURE. ONLY THROUGH INCLUSIVE AND BOTTOM-UP PARTICIPATION WE BE ABLE TO FOSTER AN ACCESSIBLE, OPEN, SECURE, AND TRUSTWORTHY INTERNET.
>THE INTERNET IS TRANSFORMING SOCIETIES IN ALL REGIONS. IT IS THE BACKBONE OF OUR GLOBAL ECONOMY AND AN ESSENTIAL VEHICLE FOR DISSEMINATING INFORMATION AND IDEAS.
>ONE-THIRD OF THE PEOPLE NOW HAVE ACCESS TO THE INTERNET AND THE KNOWLEDGE AND THE TOOLS IT PROVIDES. INCREASING NUMBER OF PEOPLE NOW HAVE A PLATFORM TO VOICE THEIR OPINIONS AND PARTICIPATE IN SOCIETY FROM COMMERCE TO DEMOCRATIC DECISION-MAKING. THAT IS WHY IT IS ESSENTIAL THAT INTERNET GOVERNANCE POLICIES CONTINUE TO FOSTER FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AND THE FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION.
>THE INTERNET AND THE INFORMATION SOCIETY HOLD TREMENDOUS PROMISE FOR THE POST-2015 DEVELOPMENT AGENDA.
>THE INTERNET CAN STRENGTHEN EFFORTS TO ERADICATE POVERTY, ADDRESS INEQUALITY, AND PROTECT AND RENEW THE PLANET'S RESOURCES.
>BUT REALIZING THE PROMISE MEANS EXPANDING INTERNET ACCESS TO NEARLY 1.3 BILLION PEOPLE WHO CURRENTLY LACK IT.
>MOST ARE IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES AND THERE ARE SIGNIFICANT GENDER GAPS.
>INTERNET GOVERNANCE MUST, THEREFORE, WORK TO BRIDGE THE DIGITAL DIVIDE THROUGH INCLUSIVE RIGHTS-BASED POLICIES.
>INTERNET GOVERNANCE SHOULD AIM FOR UNIVERSAL ACCESS TO AN INTEROPERABLE, GLOBALLY CONNECTED, AND SAFE ONLINE SPACE.
>TO THIS END, THE PRINCIPLES OF THE WORLD SUMMIT ON THE INFORMATION SOCIETY REMAIN RELEVANT.
>THE UNITED NATIONS INVITES ALL STAKEHOLDERS TO JOIN IN THE ONGOING SUMMIT REVIEW PROCESS.
>CONFIDENCE IN THE INTERNET AND ITS GOVERNANCE IS VITAL. IF IT IS TO BE EFFECTIVELY CONTRIBUTING TO THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT.
>IN THIS CONNECTION, I WISH TO INFORM THE MEETING I INTEND TO APPOINT AMBASSADOR JANIS KARKLINS OF LATVIA AS THE CHAIR OF THE MULTISTAKEHOLDER ADVISORY GROUP OF THE INTERNET GOVERNANCE FORUM.
>[APPLAUSE ] >>WU HONGBO: I COUNT ON MR. KARKLINS TO PROMOTE A STRENGTHENED INTERNET GOVERNANCE THROUGH BROADER PARTICIPATION, NOT ONLY BY GOVERNMENTS BUT ALSO THE PRIVATE SECTOR AND CIVIL SOCIETY, INCLUDING THE ACADEMIC AND THE TECHNICAL COMMUNITIES.
>BUILDING CONSENSUS ON THE ROADMAP FOR THE FUTURE OF INTERNET GOVERNANCE IS CRUCIAL. THIS NETmundial IS AN IMPORTANT MILESTONE. I WISH YOU A PRODUCTIVE MEETING. UNQUOTE.
>THANK YOU VERY MUCH ON BEHALF OF UNITED NATIONS DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL AFFAIRS, UNDESA. I WOULD LIKE TO THANK BRAZIL AND THE BRAZILIAN INTERNET STEERING COMMITTEE FOR NOT ONLY HOSTING THIS IMPORTANT MEETING, BUT ALSO FOR BEING CONSISTENT SUPPORTERS OF INTERNET GOVERNMENT FORUM. THE IGF COMMUNITY LOOKS FORWARD TO RUNNING TO BRAZIL FOR THE SECOND TIME FOR THE 10TH IGF IN 2015.
>THANK YOU VERY MUCH.
>[APPLAUSE ] >> NOW, WE ARE GOING TO LISTEN TO MS. NNENNA NWAKANMA, A REPRESENTATIVE OF CIVIL SOCIETY AND CONTRIBUTOR OF THE OPEN SOURCE FOUNDATION OF AFRICA.
>[APPLAUSE ] >>NNENNA NWAKANMA: OOH-LA-LA. YOUR EXCELLENCIES, COLLEAGUES, PRESENT AND REMOTE LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, (NON-ENGLISH WORD OR PHRASE). MY NAME IS I COME FROM THE INTERNET. I ALSO COME FROM DIVERSE CIVIL SOCIETY TEAMS AND NETWORKS, ONE OF WHICH IS THE TEAM THAT WORKS WITH THE WORLD WIDE WEB FOUNDATION.
>AT THE WEB FOUNDATION, WE ARE ENGAGED IN THE ALLIANCE FOR AFFORDABLE INTERNET. WE'RE ENGAGED IN THE WEB INDEX AND OPEN DATA INITIATIVES. ONE THING I DO FOR A LIVING IS TO ESTABLISH THE OPEN WEB AS A GLOBAL PUBLIC GOOD AND A BASIC RIGHT, ENSURING THAT EVERYONE CAN ACCESS AND USE IT FREELY. THAT'S WHAT I DO.
>I ALSO BELONG TO THE (INDISCERNIBLE) CIVIL SOCIETY PLATFORM, THE INTERNET GOVERNANCE CAUCUS FOR THE PAST 12 YEARS, AND THE AFRICA INTERNET GOVERNANCE FORUM.
>SO FOR ME, NETmundial, IN CONVENING US TO TAKE A CRITICAL LOOK AT THE PRINCIPLES AND ROADMAP FOR THE FUTURE OF THE INTERNET GOVERNANCE AVAILS ME WITH AN OPPORTUNITY TO RAISE THREE KEY ISSUES.
>THE FIRST ISSUE IS ACCESS.
>AS MUCH AS TWO-THIRDS OF THE WORLD'S POPULATION IS NOT YET CONNECTED TO THE INTERNET. THE PENETRATION RATES IN DEVELOPED COUNTRIES AVERAGE AROUND 31%, BUT IN AFRICA WHERE I COME FROM, WE ARE ABOUT 16%.
>IN THE WORLD'S 49 LEAST DEVELOPED COUNTRIES, OVER 90% OF THE POPULATION ARE STILL NOT ONLINE.
>WE HAVE 1 BILLION PEOPLE LIVING WITH DISABILITY, AND 80% OF THESE LIVE IN THE DEVELOPING COUNTRIES. EACH ONE OF THESE DESERVE ACCESS.
>ACCESS TO INFORMATION, ACCESS TO LIBRARIES, ACCESS TO KNOWLEDGE, AND ACCESS TO AFFORDABLE INTERNET.
>MY SECOND ISSUE IS SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC JUSTICE.
>THE INTERNET IS FAST BECOMING THE DOMINANT MEANS OF WEALTH CREATION, SO THE RIGHTS TO DEVELOPMENT, I THINK, SHOULD INCLUDE SOCIAL JUSTICE.
>FOR ME, IT IS NOT ENOUGH TO DO A SUPERFICIAL CAPACITY-BUILDING JUST FOR A FEW PERSONS. I'M LOOKING FOR THE MECHANISM THAT ALLOWS THE HIGHEST NUMBER OF PERSONS TO BE INCLUDED, THE LARGEST NUMBER OF VOICES TO BE HEARD, THE WIDEST EXTENT OF ACCESS TO INNOVATION, AND THE DEEPEST CREATIVITY FOR THE HUMAN MIND TO FLOURISH.
>FOR THIS, I THINK WE NEED TO START CONSIDERING THE INTERNET AS PUBLIC COMMENTS.
>MY THIRD ISSUE IS HUMAN RIGHTS AND FREEDOM.
>NOW I WILL INVITE YOU TO LISTEN THROUGH MY VOICE TO SOMEONE THAT I GREATLY RESPECT.
>THIS PERSON IS A "SHE." SHE WAS SPEAKING AT THE UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY IN NEW YORK ON THE 25TH OF SEPTEMBER RAFT YEAR. DO YOU WANT TO HEAR WHAT SHE SAID?
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>>>NNENNA NWAKANMA: SHE SAID, "I CANNOT BUT DEFEND IN AN UNCOMPROMISING FASHION THE RIGHT TO PRIVACY OF INDIVIDUALS. IN THE ABSENCE OF THE RIGHT TO PRIVACY, THERE CAN BE NO TRUE FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AND OPINION AND THERE IS NO EFFECTIVE DEMOCRACY." AND THAT WAS DILMA ROUSSEFF.
>[CHEERS AND APPLAUSE ] >>NNENNA NWAKANMA: OKAY. THANK YOU. RIGHT. LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, IN LOOKING FORWARD TOWARDS THE ROADMAP, I ALSO NEED TO RAISE THREE KEY ISSUES.
>MY FIRST ISSUE IS PARTICIPATION. WHEN WE STARTED, WE KICKED OFF WITH THE BASIC UNDERSTANDING THAT ALL STAKEHOLDERS HAVE A PLACE, A ROLE, A CONTRIBUTION.
>BUT AS WE'VE MOVED FURTHER DOWN THE LINE, THE IDEA OF MULTISTAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT IS GETTING MUDDLED AND IT'S LOSING A BIT OF ITS MEANING, SO I WOULD REQUEST THAT WE GO BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD AND WE REVISIT IT, AND IF IT NEEDS TO UPGRADE, PLEASE LET'S DO THAT.
>BECAUSE WE NEED TO ENGAGE ALL STAKEHOLDERS AT A GLOBAL, REGIONAL, AND NATIONAL LEVELS.
>WE NEED TO ESTABLISH RESPECT AND VALUE FOR ALL CONTRIBUTIONS COMING FROM ALL STAKEHOLDERS, AND WE NEED MEANINGFUL PARTICIPATION FROM INDIVIDUALS COMING FROM DEVELOPING COUNTRIES AND UNDERREPRESENTED GROUPS.
>MY SECOND ISSUE IS RESOURCES.
>HOW DO WE ENSURE THAT RESOURCES ARE MOBILIZED AND MAINTAINED FOR A VIABLE INTERNET GOVERNANCE MECHANISM?
>THE QUESTION IS NOT JUST AT THE GLOBAL LEVEL. IT'S AT CONTINENTAL, REGIONAL, AND EVEN NATIONAL LEVELS.
>WHO'S RESOURCES ARE WE GOING TO COMMIT?
>MY FIRST THOUGHT IS THAT THE INTERNET SHOULD BE ABLE TO PROVIDE RESOURCES FOR ITS OWN GOVERNANCE. MAYBE PART OF THE DOMAIN NAME FEES SHOULD BE REINVESTED IN THIS AREA.
>[APPLAUSE ]
>>>NNENNA NWAKANMA: NOW, MY THIRD ISSUE IS CHANGE.
>NETmundial IS OFFERING US A GREAT OPPORTUNITY FOR CHANGE. CHANGE FROM ONE STAKEHOLDER HIJACKING THE PROCESS TO AN OPEN AND INCLUSIVE PROCESS. CHANGE FROM ONE OFFICIAL ISSUING ORDERS TO COLLABORATION. CHANGE FROM JUST REPORTS TO REAL TRANSPARENCY.
>CHANGE FROM POWER TO ACCOUNTABILITY. CHANGE FROM MONOLOGUES TO DIALOGUES AND DEBATES. CHANGE FROM THE RHETORIC OF CYBER-WAR TO THE NOTION OF INTERNET FOR PEACE. CHANGE FROM CYBER-THREATS TO DIGITAL SOLIDARITY. AND I DO BELIEVE THAT ALL OF THESE PRINCIPLES WILL ALSO GUIDE US IN IANA TRANSITION.
>LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THERE IS ONE MESSAGE I MUST LEAVE WITH YOU TODAY, IT IS THE MESSAGE OF TRUST.
>WE'RE IN BRAZIL BECAUSE WE TRUST THE PERSON OF DILMA ROUSSEFF. WE ARE HERE BECAUSE WE TRUST THE NETmundial PROCESS. WE TRUST THE MULTISTAKEHOLDER APPROACH OF BRAZIL IN ITS OWN IGF, AND WE HAVE FOLLOWED THE STORY OF MARCO CIVIL AND I WANT TO SEE CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL BRAZILIANS ON THIS.
>[CHEERS AND APPLAUSE ] >>NNENNA NWAKANMA: HANG ON. HANG ON. HANG ON.
>THE TRUST THAT WE HAVE IN BRAZIL IS NEEDED AT ALL LEVELS. BUT THIS TRUST HAS BEEN DESTROYED BY THE COLLECTION, PROCESSING, AND INTERCEPTION OF OUR COMMUNICATIONS.
>[APPLAUSE ] >>NNENNA NWAKANMA: YES. SURVEILLANCE ON INTERNET SECURITY AND OUR TRUST IN ALL PERSONAL BUSINESS AND DIPLOMATIC COMMUNICATIONS. THAT'S WHY WE SAY "NO." THE WEB WE CAN TRUST, THAT IS THE WEB WE WANT. THE WEB THAT CONTRIBUTES TO PEACE, THAT IS THE WEB WE WANT. THE WEB THAT IS OPEN AND INCLUSIVE, THAT IS THE WEB WE WANT. THE WEB OF OPPORTUNITIES AND SOCIAL JUSTICE, THAT IS WHY I AM HERE.
>LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, NETmundial, I THINK, IS THE WORLD CUP OF INTERNET GOVERNANCE. WE NEED A ROBUST STADIUM THAT CAN HOLD US. THAT IS INFRASTRUCTURE. WE NEED TO ENJOY THE GAME. THAT IS PARTICIPATION. WE SHOULD NOT DISCRIMINATE. THAT IS NET NEUTRALITY. EVERYBODY'S FREE TO SUPPORT THEIR TEAM. I SUPPORT (SAYING NAME) OF NIGERIA. THAT IS FREEDOM. I SUPPORT BRAZIL AS LONG AS THEY ARE NOT PLAYING AGAINST AFRICA, ANYWAY.
>[LAUGHTER ] >>NNENNA NWAKANMA: WE NEED TO BE ABLE TO WEAR OUR COSTUMES AS FANS AND THAT IS DIVERSITY. AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, WE NEED TO KNOW THE RULES OF THE GAME AND PLAY BY IT. THAT, FOR ME, IS TRANSPARENCY.
>SO IT'S NOT GOING TO BE ABOUT POWER AND CONTROL FOR GOVERNMENTS. IT'S NOT GOING TO BE JUST INTEREST FOR THE INDUSTRY. IT'S NOT GOING TO BE NAMES AND NUMBERS FOR TECHNICAL COMMUNITY. IT'S NOT GOING TO BE FOR OR AGAINST FOR CIVIL SOCIETY. I THINK THAT WE NEED HUMILITY. THE HUMILITY TO LISTEN TO DIVERSE VOICES IS ESSENTIAL FOR AN AUTHENTIC DIALOGUE. LET US TALK TO EACH OTHER AND NOT AT EACH OTHER. BECAUSE SOMETIMES WE CAN BE SO DROWNED IN OUR OWN VOICES THAT WE DO NOT HEAR THE OTHER STAKEHOLDERS.
>JUST BEFORE I SIT DOWN, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, TOMORROW IS GIRLS IN ICT DAY, SO I'M GOING TO SPEAK TO LADIES.
>GIRLS, IT IS UP TO US TO SEIZE THE OPPORTUNITY THAT THE INTERNET HAS GIVEN US. LET'S SEIZE IT AND LET'S ROCK THE WORLD! LET US GET WOMEN ONLINE. LET US GET US ONLINE.
>AND THIS, I WANT TO SAY A SPECIAL TRIBUTE TO ALL THE GIRLS IN MY WORLD FOUNDATION TEAM. ALEXANDRA IS HERE, RENAT AVILA, SONIA GEORGE, ANGELA, AND NOT JUST NETmundial BUT GIRLS ACROSS THE WORLD WORK ON THE INTERNET EVERY DAY. DEBORAH BROWN IS IN THE U.S. MARION FRANKLIN IS IN EUROPE. ANNA IS IN INDIA, (SAYING NAME) IS IN LATIN AMERICA HERE, (SAYING NAME) IS IN AFRICA, JOY LID I COT IS IN NEW ZEALAND, AND SALANIETA IS SOMEWHERE IN THE ISLANDS OF FIJI. GREAT WOMEN WHO DO THIS WORK. AND EVEN HERE IN BRAZIL, WE HAVE GREAT LADIES. ONE IS (SAYING NAME) AND THE OTHER IS (SAYING NAME) BUT COME ON, IT'S NOT JUST ABOUT WOMEN. THERE ARE GUYS, MEN, WHO WORK EVERY DAY, WHO PUT IN THE ENERGY, WHO PUT IN THEIR LIFE, WHO PUT IN ALL THEY HAVE, PUT IN THEIR EXPERTISE, SO THAT WE CAN HAVE A GLOBAL, TRUE, OPEN AND RESILIENT. AND TO ALL OF US WHO LOVE THE INTERNET AND TO ALL OF US WHO ARE HERE AND TO SOMEONE CALLED EDWARD, EDWARD SNOWDEN, THANK YOU.
>[CHEERS AND APPLAUSE ]
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>>>VINT CERF: PRESIDENT DILMA ROUSSEFF, EXCELLENCIES, DISTINGUISHED GUESTS, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, IT IS AN HONOR AND A PRIVILEGE TO PARTICIPATE IN NETmundial. THIS DIALOGUE IS TIMELY AND MUCH NEEDED AS THE INTERNET CELEBRATES THE 40th YEAR OF ITS PUBLIC UNVEILING AND THE 31st YEAR OF ITS OPERATION. IN MAY 1974, THE DESIGN OF THE INTERNET WAS PUBLISHED IN THE IE EX-E PUBLICATIONS. ROBERT KAHN AND I FELT STRONGLY THE DESIGN AND THE PROTOCOLS OF THE INTERNET NEEDED TO BE FREELY AND OPENLY AVAILABLE TO ANY INTERESTED PARTIES AND WITHOUT ANY BARRIERS TO ADOPTION AND USE.
>OVER FOUR DECADES BY WORKING TOGETHER AND INCLUDING THE EXPERIENCES GATHERED FROM OTHER GLOBAL NETWORK EXERCISES, AN INFORMAL COALITION HAS BUILT FROM THE BOTTOM UP THE SUCCESSFUL, FREE AND OPEN INTERNET AND THE POPULAR WORLDWIDE WEB. SOME 3 BILLION PEOPLE ARE ALREADY ONLINE WORKING TOGETHER TOWARDS GROWTH IN A POWERFUL ECONOMIC ENGINE AND POSITIVE SOCIAL FORCE.
>THIS INTERNET GOVERNANCE MEETING COMES AT A TIME WHEN THE INTERNET AND ITS USE REFLECTS THE FULL RANGE OF INTERESTS OF A GLOBAL AND INCREASINGLY ONLINE SOCIETY.
>IN ADDITION TO APPRECIATING THE ENORMOUS BENEFITS ALREADY OBTAINED THROUGH THE COOPERATIVE CREATION, DISCOVERING AND SHARING OF INFORMATION ON THE INTERNET, IT IS ALSO APPARENT THAT USERS AND GOVERNMENTS ARE BECOMING CONCERNED ABOUT POTENTIAL HARMS THAT MAY BE ENCOUNTERED IN THIS DIGITAL WORLD.
>A SMALL FRACTION OF THE INTERNET'S USERS DELIBERATELY SEEK TO BENEFIT THEMSELVES AT THE EXPENSE OF OTHERS OR JUST SEEK TO DO DAMAGE THROUGH A KIND OF DIGITAL VANDALISM, AS ALSO HAPPENS OFFLINE.
>MOREOVER, IT IS APPARENT THAT THE RICH SOCIAL NETWORKING APPLICATIONSES THAT ARE RAPIDLY PROLIFERATING ALSO HAVE A POLITICAL POTENTIAL THAT MAY BE ALARMING TO SOME REGIMES.
>GOVERNMENTS UNDERSTANDABLY SEEK WAYS TO DEFEND THE GENERAL PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SECTORS AGAINST HARM, SUCH AS FRAUD, MALWARE, IDENTITY THEFT AND BULLYING. OTHERS VIOLATE HUMAN RIGHTS BY USING THE INTERNET TO CENSOR, MISINFORM, CONDUCT SURVEILLANCE AND RESTRICT SPEECH OR USE IT AS A MEANS TO IDENTIFY AND INCARCERATE THOSE WHO SPEAK TRUTH TO POWER.
>THE OPENNESS OF THE INTERNET HAS BEEN THE KEY TO ITS GROWTH AND VALUE. PERMISSIONLESS INNOVATION IS THE MAIN SPRING OF INTERNET'S ECONOMIC POWER. WE MUST FIND WAYS TO PROTECT THE VALUES THAT THE INTERNET BRINGS, INCLUDING THE RIGHTS OF ITS USERS WHILE ALSO PROTECTING THEM FROM HARM.
>THESE PRINCIPLES, TOGETHER WITH GROWING ACCESS TO THE INTERNET WILL PROVE TO BE OF LASTING VALUE TO THE DEVELOPING WORLD THAT CAN TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE POSITIVE BENEFITS OF AN EXPANDING INFORMATION ECONOMY.
>OUR WORK IS NOT NEARLY DONE UNTIL THE INTERNET IS ACCESSIBLE TO EVERYONE AND IPv6 IS ACCESSIBLE EVERYWHERE.
>BRAZIL HAS SET A POSITIVE EXAMPLE IN NETmundial. IN A MULTIPARTY INITIATIVE LED BY CONGRESSMAN ALESANDRO MALONE, THE COUNTRY HAS JUST LEGISLATED MARCO CIVIL WHICH OFFERS IMPORTANT SAFEGUARDS TO PROTECT INTERMEDIARY INTERNET PROVIDERS AND PROTECT USER RIGHTS. ITS INTERNET STEERING COMMITTEE, CGI.BR, IS A MODEL OF NATIONAL MULTISTAKEHOLDER GOVERNANCE.
>THIS MEETING, AMONG MANY OTHERS, REPRESENTS AN IMPORTANT OPPORTUNITY TO EXAMINE A MULTISTAKEHOLDER MODEL FOR INTERNET GOVERNANCE BASED ON THE PARTICIPATION OF ALL STAKEHOLDERS, INCLUDING ROLES FOR GOVERNMENT, ACADEMICS, CIVIL SOCIETY, PRIVATE BUSINESSES AND THE TECHNICAL COMMUNITY. THIS CONFERENCE HAS BROUGHT TOGETHER A RICH AND VARIED GROUP OF INTERESTED PARTIES TO EXPLORE PRINCIPLES AND GUIDELINES FOR FUTURE INTERNET GOVERNANCE AS IT REACHES THE OTHER 4 BILLION STILL UNCONNECTED PEOPLE IN THE WORLD.
>THE INTERNET HAS BEEN BUILT ON THE BASIS OF COLLABORATION AMONG A DIVERSE AND CONSTANTLY EVOLVING SET OF INTERESTED PARTIES. AND THIS IS A FOUNDATIONAL IDEA THAT MUST BE PRESERVED. NEW INSTITUTIONS AND OPERATIONAL PLAYERS HAVE BEEN FORMED AT NEED, SUCH AS THE INTERNET ARCHITECTURE BOARD, THE INTERNET ENGINEERING TASK, THE INTERPRET SOCIETY, THE INTERNET CORPORATION FOR ASSIGNED NAMES AND NUMBERS, THE REGIONAL INTERNET REGISTRIES AND THE NUMBER RESOURCE ORGANIZATION, OTHER REGIONAL TLD ORGANIZATIONS SUCH AS CENTR AND LacTLD, THE ROOT SERVER OPERATORS, REGIONAL NETWORK OPERATION GROUPS, THE EMERGENCY RESPONSE TEAMS, INTERNET EXCHANGE POINTS, THE TOP-LEVEL DOMAIN REGISTRIES AND REGISTRARS AND THE NETWORK INFORMATION CENTERS SUCH AS THE BRAZILIAN NIC.
>OUT OF THE WORLD SUMMIT ON THE INFORMATION SOCIETY HAS COME THE ANNUAL INTERNET GOVERNANCE FORUM AND ITS REGIONAL AND NATIONAL ANALOGS. WE CREATE INSTITUTIONS AT NEED.
>AS WE GATHER HERE FOR THE NEXT TWO DAYS, WE HAVE TWO SPECIFIC CHALLENGES TO CONSIDER. THE LARGER ONE IS THE GENERAL DESIGN OF A GLOBAL, MULTISTAKEHOLDER INTERNET GOVERNANCE FRAMEWORK THAT PRESERVES THE FREE AND OPEN INTERNET AND PROVIDES TRANSNATIONAL PROTECTIONS FOR THE RIGHTS OF USERS.
>THE FRAMEWORK HAS TO ENABLE THE EVOLUTION OF THE INTERNET AND BE ABLE TO ADAPT TO IT. THE MORE FOCUSED CHALLENGE IS TO DEVISE A RESPONSE TO THE U.S. INVITATION TO ASSURE THAT WHEN THE U.S. GOVERNMENT AND ITS CONTRACTUAL RELATIONSHIP WITH ICANN, THE MULTISTAKEHOLDER FRAMEWORK FOR ICANN'S MANAGEMENT OF UNIQUE IDENTIFIERS AND PARAMETERS WILL ADHERE TO THE PRINCIPLES THAT HAVE MADE THE INTERNET A REMARKABLE, GLOBAL AND BENEFICIAL INFRASTRUCTURE.
>I BELIEVE THAT THE CHALLENGE BEFORE US, ASSURING ICANN'S ADHERENCE CAN BE ACCOMPLISHED BY REINFORCING ITS ACCOUNTABILITY AND TRANSPARENCY MECHANISMS. THE LARGER CHALLENGE, PROTECTING THE RIGHTS OF USERS WHILE ASSURING THEIR SAFETY WILL REQUIRE LAYERED, LOCAL, NATIONAL AND TRANSNATIONAL ENABLING MECHANISMS. WE CANNOT PRETEND TO KNOW THE SOLUTION TO ALL THE CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES THAT THE INTERNET POSES. WE CAN, HOWEVER, CREATE STRUCTURES THAT WILL ALLOW MULTISTAKEHOLDER COLLABORATIONS TO DISCOVER AND EVALUATE POSSIBLE ANSWERS.
>AMONG THE MECHANISMS THAT SHOULD BE REINFORCED AND SUPPORTED, I WOULD SINGLE OUT THE INTERNET GOVERNANCE FORUM. IT NEEDS FINANCIAL SUPPORT AND A PROPERLY STAFFED SECRETARIAT. IT HAS ILLUMINATED OUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE PROSPECTS AND PROBLEMS ARISING FROM THE GLOBAL GROWTH OF THE INTERNET.
>MOBILE TECHNOLOGY RAPIDLY DROPPING COSTS FOR INTERNET-ENABLING EQUIPMENT AND COMMUNICATIONS, AND BOUNDLESS DEVELOPMENT OF NEW APPLICATIONS HAVE CREATED A RICH PALATE FROM WHICH TO PAINT A BENEFICIAL DIGITAL FUTURE. THE GLOBAL IGF AND ITS REGIONAL AND NATIONAL COUNTERPARTS CAN BECOME AN EVEN MORE HELPFUL MECHANISM FOR HIGHLIGHTING ISSUES BY TRACKING THEIR SOLUTIONS IN A VARIETY OF FORUMS AND ENABLING THE EMERGENCE OF NEW APPROACHES WHEN THESE SEEM NECESSARY.
>WE WOULD HAVE TO BE A PRETTY SILLY SPECIES NOT TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE GIFT THAT THE TECHNOLOGY HAS GIVEN US. THOSE OF US PARTICIPATING IN THE NETmundial -- WELL, I HAVE A VERY INTERESTING PROBLEM HERE, MY SPEECH ENDS BECAUSE THE REST OF IT WASN'T PRINTED OUT.
>[LAUGHTER ]
>SO I WILL END BY THANKING YOU VERY MUCH FOR THE TIME ON THIS STAGE.
>[APPLAUSE ]
>>>TIM BERNERS-LEE: TECHNOLOGY IS PERFECT THEN.
>45 YEARS AGO VINT CERF AND BOB KAHN PUT TOGETHER THE IDEA OF THE INTERNET, DESIGNED THAT, AND MADE THAT OPEN. 25 YEARS AGO -- A LONG TIME LATER, THE INTERNET WAS RUNNING. THERE WAS REMOTE --- . THERE WAS EMAIL RUNNING OVER THE INTERNET. BUT THERE WERE NO WEB, NO WEB SITES, NO WEB PAGES, NO LINKS. I FELT IT WAS REALLY IMPORTANT THERE SHOULD BE SO I INVENTED THE WEB. AND AS THE WORLDWIDE WEB PROJECT GREW, I NEEDED COLLABORATORS. I INVENTED HTML AND HTTP AND URLS BUT THE DEVELOPMENT OF THOSE HAD TO BE DONE BY A LARGE TECHNICAL COMMUNITY. I WENT TO THE INTERNET ENGINEERING TASK FORCE, I FOUNDED THE WORLDWIDE WEB CONSORTIUM THAT ASSESS THE STANDARDS FOR THE WEB AND ITS MOTTO IS TO LEAD THE WEB TO ITS FULL POTENTIAL.
>SO THE COLLABORATION BETWEEN THESE MULTISTAKEHOLDER GROUPS LIKE IETF AND W3C AND ALL THE PEERS THEY WORK WITH LIKE ECMA, TC39 FOR (SAYING NAME) THAT HAS BEEN REALLY CRUCIAL AND IT REALLY HAS BEEN HOW THIS HAS ALL WORKED.
>I HOPE YOU WILL AGREE THAT PEOPLE WORKING TOGETHER HAVE DONE A REASONABLE JOB AND LOOKING BACK AT THE 25 YEARS OF THE WEB, IT HAS BEEN -- IT HAS BEEN AN INCREDIBLE RIDE AND WE REALIZE NOW THAT RATHER THAN BEING A FUN PROJECT LIKE ALL THESE THINGS STARTED OFF WITH, IT NOW BECOMES SOMETHING WE HAVE TO REGARD AS TO BEING CRUCIAL.
>SOME OF THESE ORGANIZATIONS WHICH BELIEVE IN OPEN STANDARDS IN THIS PARTICULAR SORT OF MULTISTAKEHOLDER OPEN ON THE WEB SORT OF MEANING OF THE WORD, DEVISED THE WORD OPEN STAND. YOU CAN GO TO OPENSTAND.ORG TO EXPRESS THE WAY IT SHOULD BE ABOUT WITH OPEN DISCUSSION WITH THE DOCUMENTS BEING FREELY AVAILABLE ON THE WEB. WITH W3C SPECIFICALLY COMPANIES COMMIT THAT WHEN THEY START AND WORK TOWARDS THESE STANDARDS, THAT WHEN THE STANDARDS COME OUT THAT THEY WILL NOT CHARGE ROYALTIES TO ANYBODY WHO WANTS TO IMPLEMENT IT. SO KEEPING IT ROYALTY FREE HAS ALSO BEEN REALLY IMPORTANT.
>THE WEB GREW AS SOMETHING WHICH DID NOT INVOLVE BORDERS BECAUSE IT GREW ON THE INTERNET AND THE INTERNET, WHEN YOU CONNECT -- WHEN I WROTE A PROGRAM TO CONNECT FROM ONE COMPUTER TO THE OTHER, NEITHER PROGRAM HAD AN AWARENESS, NEEDED TO KNOW OR NECESSARILY FOUND IT EASY TO FIND OUT WHICH COUNTRY THOSE TWO COMPUTERS WERE IN. BUT INTERNET WAS TECHNICALLY -- IS A NATIONLESS THING. SO IN A NON-NATIONAL ENVIRONMENT, THE WEB GROWING UP, IT HAS BEEN A NON-NATIONAL SOCIETY WHICH HAS GROWN UP AROUND IT.
>YES, THERE HAS BEEN -- FORMALLY, THERE HAS BEEN A CONNECTION BETWEEN THE U.S. GOVERNMENT AND THE WAY INTERNET NUMBERS AND NAMES HAVE BEEN ASSIGNED. AND I'M VERY GLAD THAT THE U.S. GOVERNMENT HAS ACCEPTED TO RELEASE THAT OVERSIGHT. I THINK THAT IS VERY OVERDUE AND A VERY IMPORTANT STEP.
>IT IS AN IMPORTANT STEP BECAUSE ICANN SHOULD SERVICE -- IT SERVICES THE GLOBAL PUBLIC INTERNET, AND, THEREFORE, IT SHOULD BE A GLOBAL PUBLIC BODY. SO FOR ME, WHAT DOES THAT MEAN? IT IS EASY TO SAY IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST. FOR ME, FOR ICANN, THAT MEANS THAT DECISIONS THAT IT MAKES ABOUT TOP-LEVEL DOMAINS, ABOUT WHATEVER, ABOUT HOW TO SPEND ITS FUNDING, THEY SHOULD BE MADE BY STEPPING BACK AND THINKING, WELL, NEVERMIND THE PEOPLE WE KNOW INTIMATELY WHO ARE INVOLVED IN THAT DECISION BUT LET'S THINK ABOUT THE PLAN AS A WHOLE. WHAT IS BEST FOR HUMANITY AS A WHOLE? THAT SHOULD GUIDE EVERY DECISION THAT ICANN MAKES.
>OBVIOUSLY, ONE OF THE THINGS THAT ICANN DOES IS IT HAS FUNDS TO SPEND AND SO PARTLY IT CAN FURTHER THE WORLD BY SPENDING THOSE IN A BENEFICIAL WAY SUCH AS SUPPORTING -- WELL, SUPPORTING STANDARDIZATION, SUPPORTING HARDENING WEB TECHNOLOGY, SUPPORTING PIECES OF TECHNOLOGY LIKE THAT, THE INTERNATIONALIZATION OF THE TECHNOLOGY, KEEPING IT SO IT WORKS WITH EVERY CULTURE AND LANGUAGE, ACCESSIBILITY FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES AND, OF COURSE, CLOSING THE DIGITAL DIVIDE FOR REALLY IMPORTANT AGENDAS WHICH ICANN CAN THINK ABOUT SUPPORTING.
>THE INTERNET HAS THRIVED FROM THE EMPOWERMENT OF CAPABLE AND PUBLIC-SPIRITED PEOPLE. INITIALLY, THEY WERE FROM THE TECHNICAL COMMUNITY AND ACADEMIA BUT MORE RECENTLY THE WHOLE PRIVATE SECTOR, CIVIL SOCIETY AND GOVERNMENTS. WE NEED INTERNET GOVERNMENTS WHICH ALLOWS EACH COMMUNITY TO BRING ITS PARTICULAR STRENGTHS TO THE TABLE BUT ALLOWS NONE OF THEM TO ELEVATE ITS OWN INTEREST ABOVE THE PUBLIC GOOD.
>FIVE YEARS AGO, RELATIVELY RECENTLY IN INTERNET TIME, SOME OF US REALIZE THAT ALL THE TECHNICAL WORK WE WERE DOING WAS WONDERFUL BUT IT WAS EVERY SINGLE THING DID WAS INCREASING THE DIGITAL DIVIDE, INCREASING THE GAP BETWEEN THE POWER OF THE PEOPLE WHO HAD THE WEB AND DID NOT HAVE IT. SO AT THAT POINT, WE STARTED THE WORLDWIDE WEB FOUNDATION ABOUT WHICH YOU ALREADY HEARD SOME TO MAKE SURE THAT THE WEB -- WELL, YES, THAT IT GETS TO, FOR EXAMPLE, THE 60% OF THE PEOPLE WHO IN THE WORLD WHO DON'T HAVE IT AT ALL BUT ALSO FOR THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE IT, THAT IT REALLY IS THE WEB THAT WE WOULD WANT, THE WEB HAS NOW BECOME AN ESSENTIAL PUBLIC UTILITY SO WE HAVE TO REGARD IT AS SUCH.
>MUCH OF OUR TRADITIONAL THINKING ABOUT HUMAN RIGHTS APPLIES DIRECTLY TO EVERYTHING ON THE INTERNET SUCH AS FREE EXPRESSION. BUT NEW THINGS BECOMING IMPORTANT IN THE NETWORK CONTEXT, NET NEUTRALITY MEANS KEEPING THE NET FREE FROM DISCRIMINATION, BE IT COMMERCIAL OR POLITICAL.
>THE INNOVATIVE EXPLOSION WHICH HAPPENED ACROSS THE NET OVER THE LAST 25 YEARS HAS HAPPENED ONLY BECAUSE THAT NET HAS BEEN NEUTRAL. THE SOCIAL GROUND-BREAKING SENSE OF POSSIBILITY THAT WE CAN UNDERSTAND EACH OTHER AND POSSIBLY LIVE IN PEACE RELIES ON AN OPEN NET. OH, AND THANKS TO EVERYBODY WHO HAS EVER HELD UP A BANNER IN ANY FORUM ABOUT PUSHING FOR THE OPEN NET AND PUSHING AGAINST LAWS WHICH RESTRICT THE OPEN NET.
>SO THAT SENSE OF EXCITEMENT WHICH WE ALL HAVE GIVES US ALSO A RESPONSIBILITY THAT WE MUST KEEP THE NET NEUTRAL -- THE NET AS A NEUTRAL PLATFORM IN THE FUTURE.
>FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION IS A CRUCIAL RIGHT BUT IT HAS TO BE COUPLED ON THE NETWORK WITH A COMPLIMENTARY RIGHT TO PRIVACY AS, MADAM PRESIDENT, YOU HAVE POINTED OUT BEFORE AND HAVE ALREADY BEEN QUOTED TODAY.
>SO I WON'T QUOTE YOU AGAIN, BUT I WOULD, YES, AGREE THAT THERE ARE A LOT OF PEOPLE THAT ARE WORRIED ABOUT SURVEILLANCE AND FEEL IT IS PERHAPS THE MOST IMMEDIATE THREAT. IT FEELS THE MOST IMMEDIATE THREAT. AND, OF COURSE, SURVEILLANCE ALL AFFECTS THE INTERNET, IT IS ONE OF THE MORE INSIDIOUS ONES BECAUSE YOU DON'T SEE IT HAPPENING UNLIKE CENSORSHIP.
>IT IS GREAT TO BE BACK IN BRAZIL TODAY, NOT JUST BECAUSE BRAZIL IS A WONDERFUL COUNTRY AND ONE WHICH HAS HAD A REALLY VIBRANT SENSE OF WHAT OPPORTUNITY ON THE NET BUT, OF COURSE, ESPECIALLY TODAY IS A SPECIAL DAY. YESTERDAY WAS A VERY SPECIAL DAY, THE MARCO CIVIL GOING THROUGH IS WONDERFUL. A FANTASTIC EXAMPLE OF HOW GOVERNMENTS COMPARE POSITIVE ROLE IN ADVANCING WEB RIGHTS AND KEEPING THE WEB OPEN. YES, EUROPEANS ALSO CELEBRATE, THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT PASSING LEGISLATION PROTECTING USERS ON THE WEB. WELL DONE. SO TWO DATA POINTS THAT SUGGEST WE ARE MAKING PROGRESS. THAT IS GREAT, BUT, BOY, WE HAVE GOT A HUGE WAY THE PRINCIPLES OF HUMAN RIGHTS ON THE NET ARE NEW AND THEY'RE NOT UNIVERSALLY ACCEPTED.
>THE WEB BECOMES EVER MORE EXCITING WITH EVERY ADVANCING TECHNOLOGY LIKE MOBILE WEB AND SO ON, BUT 60% OF THE WEB -- OF THE POPULATION CAN'T USE THE WEB AT ALL.
>AS THE WEB GIVES PEOPLE GREATER AND GREATER POWER, INDIVIDUALLY AND COLLECTIVELY, SO MANY FORCES ARE ABUSING OR THREATEN TO ABUSE THE NET AND ITS CITIZENS. THE WEB THAT WE WILL HAVE IN ANOTHER 25 YEARS' TIME IS, BY NO MEANS, CLEAR. BUT IT IS COMPLETELY UP TO US TO DECIDE WHAT WE WANT TO MAKE THAT WEB, WHAT WE WANT TO MAKE THAT WORLD.
>THAT'S WHY I'M ASKING WEB USERS AROUND THE WORLD, NOT JUST PEOPLE HERE IN THIS CONFERENCE ROOM AND THE OTHER CONFERENCE ROOMS WHERE THIS IS BEING RELAYED, NOT JUST PEOPLE IN THIS CONFERENCE BUT PEOPLE ALL OVER THE WORLD, TO GO AND THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU WANT AND TO FIND SOME SORT OF GLOBAL MAGNA CARTA FOR THE INTERNET. THAT IS WHY --
>[APPLAUSE ] >>TIM BERNERS-LEE: THAT IS WHY I'M ASKING COUNTRIES EVERYWHERE TO FOLLOW BRAZIL'S EXAMPLE AND EUROPE'S EXAMPLE AND DEVELOP POSITIVE LAWS THAT PROTECT AND EXPAND THE RIGHTS OF USERS IN AN OPEN, FREE, AND UNIVERSAL WEB.
>[APPLAUSE ]
>>>TIM BERNERS-LEE: THANK YOU.
>[APPLAUSE ] >> LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC HAS APPROVED A LAW THAT GUARANTEES THE RIGHTS AND DUTIES FOR THE USE OF INTERNET IN THE WORLD.
>[CHEERS AND APPLAUSE ] >>H.E. DILMA ROUSSEFF: GOOD MORNING TO ONE AND ALL. I WOULD LIKE TO THANK THOSE WHO SPOKE BEFORE ME FOR PERFECTLY PRONOUNCING "GOOD MORNING" IN PORTUGUESE, (NON-ENGLISH WORD OR PHRASE) AS VOICED BY OUR DEAR REPRESENTATIVE FROM AFRICA, NNENNA NWAKANMA.
>THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR PERFECTLY PRONOUNCING (NON-ENGLISH WORD OR PHRASE) IN BRAZILIAN PORTUGUESE. GOOD MORNING.
>AND BY GREETING HER, I WOULD LIKE TO EXTEND MY GREETINGS TO ALL WOMEN WHO ARE CURRENTLY ACTIVE ON THE WEB. BOTH THE GIRLS AND THE GUYS WHO ARE EQUALLY ACTIVE ON THE WEB.
>GREETINGS, LIKEWISE, TO THE MAYOR OF SAO PAULO WHO HAS SO KINDLY WELCOMED US, AND ABOVE ALL, I WOULD RECYCLE TO, FIRST OF ALL, GREET TWO MEMBERS OF CONGRESS FROM BRAZIL. NAMELY MR. (SAYING NAME) REPRESENTING THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES WHO SERVED AS RAPPORTEUR OF THE BILL OF LAW WHICH LED UP TO THE PASSING YESTERDAY OF THE INTERNET CIVIL FRAMEWORK, AS WELL AS REPRESENTATIVE -- RATHER SENATOR (SAYING NAME), AND THROUGH HIM, I WOULD LIKE TO FURTHER EXTEND MY GREETINGS, LIKEWISE, TO THE SENATE RAPPORTEURS WHO WERE ABLE TO PASS THE PIECE OF LAW IN A RECORD TIME, SENATOR (SAYING NAME), SENATOR (SAYING NAME), AND SENATOR (SAYING NAME). THANK YOU.
>AND SO SENATOR (SAYING NAME) AND TO REPRESENTATIVE (SAYING NAME), I WOULD LIKE TO VOICE MY THANKS FOR YOUR EFFORTS IN PASSING THE INTERNET CIVIL FRAMEWORK.
>GREETINGS, LIKEWISE, TO THE SECRETARY-GENERAL OF THE UNITED NATIONS, HONG BO. SPECIAL GREETINGS LIKEWISE TO THE INVENTOR OF THE INTERNET, TIM BERNERS-LEE.
>I WOULD LIKE TO GREET THE VICE PRESIDENT OF GOOGLE, AND A KEY PERSON -- RATHER A KEY PERSON IN THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE INTERNET, MR. CERF.
>GREETINGS, ONCE AGAIN, TO MR. (SAYING NAME) WHO, ON OCTOBER THE 8TH LAST YEAR, 2013 -- CORRECT, FADI, IF I'M NOT MISTAKEN, WE MET IN BRAZIL YEAH AND ON THAT OCCASION DURING THAT MEETING WITH YOU THE SEMINAL IDEA SURFACED OF ESTABLISHING THIS INTERNET GOVERNANCE SUMMIT MEETING THAT IS REALIZED HERE TODAY, SO THANK YOU VERY MUCH AN ALL OF YOU, INCLUDING CABINET MINISTERS AND FOREIGN DELEGATES ATTENDING THIS SESSION TODAY. ---
>MAY I ALSO USE THE OPPORTUNITY ---
>MAY I ALSO USE THE OPPORTUNITY TO GREET ALL CABINET MINISTERS WHO HAVE BEEN ACTIVELY INVOLVED IN THE PROCESS THAT LED UP TO THE PASSING OF THE INTERNET GOVERNANCE CIVIL FRAMEWORK, AN EFFORT WHICH OF COURSE INVOLVED ALL STAKEHOLDERS AND SOCIETY.
>SPECIAL THANKS TO MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS, AMBASSADOR (SAYING NAME), MINISTER OF JUSTICE CARDOZO, ALSO MINISTER OF COMMUNICATIONS, MINISTER OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, (SAYING NAME), AND MAY I ALSO GREET AND THANK SENATOR AND MINISTER OF CULTURE (SAYING NAME) AS WELL AS THE BRAZILIAN SECRETARY-GENERAL OF THE PRESIDENT'S OFFICE, (SAYING NAME). GREETINGS LIKEWISE TO ALL ATTENDEES, PARTICULARLY THE MEDIA PROFESSIONALS, JOURNALISTS, PHOTOGRAPHERS, AND CAMERAMEN AND WOMEN.
>MAY I SAY THAT YOU ARE ALL MOST WELCOME TO BRAZIL.
>AS ATTENDEES TO THIS GLOBAL MULTISTAKEHOLDER MEETING ON THE FUTURE OF INTERNET GOVERNANCE, THE SO-CALLED NETmundial AS WE CALL IT IN PORTUGUESE.
>AT THIS POINT IN TIME I WOULD ALSO LIKE TO VOICE MY GREETINGS TO THE ORGANIZERS, I.E., THE INTERNET MANAGEMENT OR MANAGING COMMITTEE AS WELL AS THE 1net COMMITTEE. IT GIVES ME GREAT JOY TO SEE IN THIS PLENARY HALL REPRESENTATIVES OF ALL DIFFERENT SECTORS WHO -- OR WHICH ARE IN ONE WAY INVOLVED IN THE INTERNET GOVERNANCE.
>IN THIS HALL TODAY, WE HAVE CIVIL SOCIETY, ACADEMIA, MEMBERS OF THE TECHNICAL COMMUNITY, BUSINESSES, AND GOVERNMENTS AT LARGE.
>THIS HEALTHY DIVERSITY -- AND I STRESS IT IS A HEALTHY DIVERSITY -- IS ALSO A HALLMARK OF THOSE GROUPS THAT HAVE JOINED US THROUGH THE INTERNET AND THIS MEETING, AND I WOULD LIKE TO USE THE OPPORTUNITY TODAY TO ESTABLISH A DIALOGUE ON THE ISSUES AND THE PURPOSES THAT BRING US TOGETHER IN SAO PAULO TODAY.
>BACK IN MID-2013 WHEN THE REVELATION SURFACED ON THE COMPREHENSIVE MECHANISMS FOR COLLECTIVE MONITORING OF COMMUNICATIONS CAUSED ANGER AND REPUDIATION IN VAST CIRCLES OF PUBLIC OPINION BOTH IN BRAZIL AND IN THE WORLD AT LARGE, IN BRAZIL CITIZENS, COMPANIES, DIPLOMATIC REPRESENTATIONS AND EVEN THE PRESIDENCY OF THE REPUBLIC ITSELF WERE TARGETED, AND THEIR COMMUNICATIONS INTERCEPTED.
>THESE EVENTS ARE NOT ACCEPTABLE. WERE NOT ACCEPTABLE IN THE PAST AND REMAIN UNACCEPTABLE TODAY, IN THAT THEY ARE AN AFFRONTMENT AGAINST THE VERY NATURE OF THE INTERNET AS A DEMOCRATIC, FREE, AND PLURALISTIC PLATFORM.
>THE INTERNET WE WANT IS ONLY POSSIBLE IN A SCENARIO WHERE HUMAN RIGHTS ARE RESPECTED. PARTICULARLY THE RIGHT TO PRIVACY AND TO ONE'S FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION.
>ACCORDINGLY, IN MY ADDRESS TO THE 68TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE UNITED NATIONS, I PUT FORTH A PROPOSAL TO TACKLE SUCH PRACTICES. I THEN PROPOSED A DISCUSSION ON ESTABLISHING A GLOBAL CIVIL FRAMEWORK FOR INTERNET GOVERNANCE AND USE, AS WELL AS MEASURES TO ENSURE ACTUAL PROTECTION OF DATA THAT TRAVELS THROUGH THE INTERNET.
>ALSO, WORKING TOGETHER WITH GERMAN CHANCELLOR ANGELA MERKEL WE SUBMITTED TO THE UNITED NATIONS A DRAFT RESOLUTION ON THE RIGHT TO PRIVACY IN THE DIGITAL AGE.
>BY CONSENSUS, THE RESOLUTION WAS PASSED AS PROPOSED AND WE ALSO PASSED A CALL FOR STATES TO DISCONTINUE ANY ARBITRARY OR ILLEGAL COLLECTION OF PERSONAL DATA AND TO ENFORCE USERS' RIGHTS TO PRIVACY.
>I SHOULD ACTUALLY STRESS THE FACT THAT THE SAME RIGHTS THAT PEOPLE ARE ENTITLED TO OFFLINE OR IN THE OFFLINE WORLD SHOULD BE LIKEWISE PROTECTED ON THE ONLINE WORLD.
>THIS MEETING TODAY, NETMUNDIAL, PROVIDES FURTHER MOMENTUM TO THAT EFFORT. THIS MEETING ALSO LIVES UP TO A GLOBAL YEARNING AS WE PROPOSE CHANGES IN THE CURRENT STATE OF AFFAIRS AND FOR AN ONGOING CONSISTENT STRENGTHENING OF FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION ON THE INTERNET AS WELL AS EFFORTS TO ULTIMATELY PROTECT BASIC HUMAN RIGHTS, AS IS THE CASE OF ONE'S RIGHT TO PRIVACY. AND WITHOUT THE SHADOW OF A DOUBT, THAT IS ALSO THE CASE OF ONE'S RIGHT TO PROPER TREATMENT OF WEB-BASED DISCUSSIONS IN A RESPECTFUL FASHION, TO ENSURE ITS OPEN, DEMOCRATIC NATURE. WE HAVE ALL TO SAO PAULO, THEREFORE, WITH A SHARED PURPOSE, THE PURPOSE OF ENHANCING AND DEMOCRATIZING INTERNET GOVERNANCE BY MEANS OF CONSENSUS BUILDING. AND I MEAN CONSENSUS AROUND PRINCIPLES, AND ON A ROADMAP TO BE DEVELOPED FOR ITS FUTURE EVOLUTION.
>A POINT I'D LIKE TO MAKE PLAIN AND CLEAR IS THAT THE IDEA HERE IS NOT, OF COURSE, TO REPLACE FOR THE COUNTLESS FORA OUT THERE THAT ALREADY ADDRESS THE TOPIC OR THE MATTER AT HAND TODAY. THE IDEA, RATHER, IS TO LEND A NEW MOMENTUM TO THE ONGOING DISCUSSIONS IN A MUCH NEEDED SENSE OF URGENCY.
>WE, THEREFORE, WORK FROM TWO PREMISES OR KEY ASSUMPTIONS.
>THE FIRST SUCH PREMISE IS THAT WE ALL WANT TO PROTECT THE INTERNET AS A SPACE, AVAILABLE TO ALL, AS A SHARED ASSET, AND AS SUCH, TRULY HERITAGE OF HUMANKIND, MORE THAN SIMPLY A WORK TOOL AND WAY BEYOND ITS WELL-KNOWN CONTRIBUTION FOR ECONOMIC GROWTH, PROVIDED, OF COURSE, THAT IT BE INCREASINGLY INCLUSIVE AND THE FACT IS THAT THE INTERNET HAS ENABLED THE CONSTANT REINVENTION OF THE WAY PEOPLE AND INSTITUTIONS INTERACT, PRODUCE CULTURE, AND ORGANIZE THEMSELVES, EVEN POLITICALLY.
>AN OPEN AND DECENT NETWORK ARCHITECTURE FAVORS GREATER ACCESS TO KNOWLEDGE. IT HELPS MAKE COMMUNICATIONS MORE DEMOCRATIC AND ALSO FOSTERS CONSTANT INNOVATION. THESE BASIC FEATURES ARE THE FEATURES THAT WE WANT AND THAT SHOULD BE PRESERVED UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, AND IN ANY SCENARIO, IN ORDER TO ULTIMATELY GUARANTEE THE FUTURE OF THE INTERNET AND, THUS, BOOST ITS TRANSFORMATIVE EFFECTS FOR AND IN SOCIETIES.
>THE SECOND PREMISE OR ASSUMPTION IS THE DESIRE WE ALL SHARE TO INCORPORATE AN INCREASINGLY BROADER AUDIENCE INTO THIS PROCESS.
>OUR COMMITMENT TO AN OPEN AND INCLUSIVE DEBATE HAS GUIDED THE EFFORTS TO ORGANIZE THIS MEETING IN SAO PAULO TODAY. ALL DIFFERENT WALKS OF LIFE HAVE TAKEN PART IN ITS PREPARATION AND ARE DULY REPRESENTED IN THIS PLANE HALL TODAY.
>WE ARE TALKING ABOUT THOUSANDS OF PARTICIPANTS FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD WHO ARE JOINED BY VIRTUAL CONNECTIONS IN SEVERAL DIFFERENT POINTS OF THE PLANET.
>THE TOPICS TO BE DISCUSSED HAVE BEEN THE SUBJECT OF BROAD AND PRIOR INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC CONSULTATION AND HAVE RECEIVED INPUTS FROM PLAYERS OR STAKEHOLDERS LOCATED IN SEVERAL DIFFERENT COUNTRIES AND IN DIFFERENT GEOGRAPHIES.
>THESE PROPOSALS IN TURN, OR INPUTS, HAVE SERVED AS THE FOUNDATION TO DEVELOP A DRAFT DOCUMENT, THE DRAFT DOCUMENT TO BE DISCUSSED AND FURTHER ENHANCED HERE IN THE NEXT FEW DAYS.
>I WOULD LIKE TO WELCOME THE WORK CONDUCTED BY THE EXECUTIVE METRIC SECTORAL COMMUNITY AS WELL AS THE HIGH-LEVEL MULTISTAKEHOLDER COMMITTEE FOR THIS JOINT EFFORT.
>THE INTEREST OF BRAZILIANS IN THE INTERNET IS REFLECTED ON THE SUBSTANTIAL PARTICIPATION OF BRAZILIAN NATIONALS IN THE DOMESTIC PUBLIC CAPTION AS FACILITATED BY THE.BR PORTAL. AT THIS TIME, CIVIL SOCIETY IS ORGANIZED IN THIS FORUM, THE SO-CALLED NETmundial ARENA, WHICH IS THE BRAZILIAN LOCUS FOR ACCESS TO TODAY'S SESSIONS.
>MAY I REMIND ALL THE LADIES AND GENTLEMEN AND FRIENDS ATTENDING THIS SESSION THAT BRAZIL ADVOCATES THAT INTERNET GOVERNANCE SHOULD BE MULTISTAKEHOLDER, MULTILATERAL, DEMOCRATIC, AND TRANSPARENT IN NATURE.
>IT IS OUR VIEW THAT THE MULTISTAKEHOLDER MODEL IS THE BEST WAY TO EXERCISE INTERNET GOVERNANCE.
>VERY MUCH IN ACCORDANCE WITH THAT VIEW, OUR LOCAL GOVERNANCE SYSTEM WHICH HAS BEEN IN OPERATION FOR 20 YEARS HAS RELIED ON ACTUAL PARTICIPATION OF REPRESENTATIVES FROM CIVIL SOCIETY, MEMBERS OF ACADEMIA, THE BUSINESS COMMUNITY, AND THE GOVERNMENT AT LARGE AT THE INTERNET GOVERNANCE -- OR AT THE INTERNET MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE.
>FULLY IN LINE WITH WHAT I JUST SAID, I ALSO ATTACH A GREAT DEAL OF IMPORTANCE TO THE MULTILATERAL PERSPECTIVE, ACCORDING TO WHICH GOVERNMENT PARTICIPATION SHOULD OCCUR ON AN EQUAL FOOTING AMONG GOVERNMENTS IN SUCH A WAY AS TO ENSURE THAT NO COUNTRY WILL HAVE OR BEAR GREATER WEIGHT VIS-A-VIS OTHER COUNTRIES.
>[APPLAUSE ] >>H.E. DILMA ROUSSEFF: OUR ADVOCACY OF THE MULTILATERAL MODEL IS THE NATIONAL CONSEQUENCE OF AN ELEMENTARY PRINCIPLE THAT SHOULD GOVERN TODAY'S INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AS ENSHRINED IN THE BRAZILIAN FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. I'M TALKING ABOUT EQUALITY AMONG STATES.
>WE, THEREFORE, SEE NO OPPOSITION WHATSOEVER BETWEEN MULTI- -- OR THE MULTILATERAL AND THE MULTISTAKEHOLDER NATURE OF THE INTERNET. ACTUALLY, THE OPPOSITE OF THAT WOULD BE A ONE-SIDED UNILATERAL INTERNET WHICH IS UNTENABLE.
>AN INTERNET THAT IS ULTIMATELY SUBJECT TO INTERGOVERNMENTAL ARRANGEMENTS THAT EXCLUDE OTHER SECTORS OF SOCIETY IS NOT DEMOCRATIC.
>MULTISTAKEHOLDER ARRANGEMENTS THAT ARE IN TURN SUBJECT TO OVERSIGHT BY ONE OR FEW STATES ARE NOT ACCEPTABLE EITHER.
>WE TRULY WANT TO MAKE RELATIONS BETWEEN GOVERNMENTS AND SOCIETIES MORE DEMOCRATIC, AS WELL AS THE RELATIONS AMONG GOVERNMENTS. WE WANT MORE, NOT LESS, DEMOCRACY.
>THE TASK OF PROVIDING A GLOBAL DONATION TO THE ORGANIZATIONS THAT ARE CURRENTLY RESPONSIBLE FOR CENTRAL FUNCTIONS OF THE INTERNET IS NOT ONLY NECESSARY, BUT ALSO AN UN-POSTPONABLE TASK.
>THE COMPLEXITY OF THE TRANSITION AT HAND, WHICH ON THE ONE HAND INVOLVES JURISDICTIONAL COMPETENCE, AS WELL AS ACCOUNTABILITY AND AN AGREEMENT WITH MULTIPLE STAKEHOLDERS, DOES NOT, NEVERTHELESS, MAKE IT LESS URGENT A TASK.
>THAT IS WHY I'D LIKE TO AGAIN WELCOME THE RECENTLY VOICED INTENTION OF THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT TO REPLACE ITS INSTITUTIONAL LINKAGE WITH THE AUTHORITY FOR -- OR WITH THE INTERNET AUTHORITY FOR NUMBER ASSIGNMENT, IANA, AND THE INTERNET CORPORATION FOR NAMES AND NUMBER ASSIGNMENTS, ICANN, BY A GLOBAL MANAGEMENT OF THESE INSTITUTIONS FROM NOW ONWARDS, A NEW INSTRUMENTAL AND LEGAL ARRANGEMENT OF THE ISDN UNDER THE RESPONSIBILITY OF IANA AND ICANN SHOULD BE BUILT IN SUCH A WAY AS TO INCLUDE BROAD-RANGING INVOLVEMENT OF ALL SECTORS THAT HAVE AN INTEREST IN THE MATTER WAY BEYOND THE TRADITIONAL STAKEHOLDERS OR PLAYERS.
>EACH SECTOR, OF COURSE, PERFORMS DIFFERENT ROLES BASED ON LIKEWISE DIFFERENTIATED RESPONSIBILITIES.
>THE OPERATIONAL MANAGEMENT OF THE INTERNET SHOULD CONTINUE BEING LED BY ITS TECHNICAL COMMUNITY. MAY I, AT THIS POINT, VOICE MY PUBLIC RECOGNITION -- AND THIS IS ON BEHALF OF MY GOVERNMENT -- TO THESE PEOPLE WHO DEVOTE THEIR TIME AND ENERGY ON A DAY-TO-DAY BASIS TO KEEPING THE INTERNET AS AN OPEN, STABLE, AND SECURE PLATFORM, A KEY EFFORT WHICH REMAINS LARGELY INVISIBLE IN THE EYES OF MOST OF US END USERS.
>MATTERS PERTAINING TO SOVEREIGNTY SUCH AS CYBERCRIME, BREACH OF RIGHTS, ECONOMIC ISSUES OR TRANSNATIONAL ECONOMIC ISSUES, AND THREATS OF CYBER-ATTACKS ARE THE PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITY OF STATES.
>THE TASK AT HAND IS, ABOVE ALL, TO ENSURE THAT STATES WILL HAVE AT THEIR AVAIL THE TOOLS THAT WILL ALLOW THEM TO FULFILL THEIR RESPONSIBILITIES BEFORE THEIR CITIZENS, TO INCLUDE THE GUARANTEE OF FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS. RIGHTS WHICH ARE ENSURED OFFLINE SHOULD BE EQUALLY INSURED ONLINE.
>THESE RIGHTS THRIVE UNDER THE SHELTER AND NOT IN THE ABSENCE OF THE STATE.
>IN ORDER FOR THE GLOBAL INTERNET GOVERNANCE TO BE TRULY DEMOCRATIC, MECHANISMS ARE REQUIRED TO ENABLE GREATER PARTICIPATION OF DEVELOPING COUNTRIES IN ALL DIFFERENT SECTORS.
>THE MATTERS THAT ARE IN THE INTEREST OF THESE COUNTRIES THAT ARE THE HEAVY-DUTY USERS OF THE INTERNET, TOPICS SUCH AS, FOR EXAMPLE, EXPANDING CONNECTIVITY, ACCESSIBILITY, AND THE RESPECT TO DIVERSITY, SHOULD BE CENTRAL ON THE INTERNATIONAL AGENDA.
>IT IS NOT ENOUGH FOR FORA TO BE OPEN FROM A PURELY FORMAL STANDPOINT. WE MUST FURTHER IDENTIFY AND REMOVE THE VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE BARRIERS TO ACTUAL PARTICIPATION OF THE ENTIRE POPULATION OF EVERY COUNTRY OR ELSE WE WOULD BE ULTIMATELY RESTRICTING OR LIMITING THE DEMOCRATIC ROLE AND THE SOCIAL AND CULTURAL REACH OF THE INTERNET.
>THE EFFORT AT HAND FURTHER REQUIRES THAT THE INTERNET GOVERNANCE FORUM BE FURTHER STRENGTHENED AS A DIALOGUE FORUM CAPABLE OF PRODUCING RESULTS AND RECOMMENDATIONS.
>IT ALSO REQUIRES A COMPREHENSIVE, BROAD-RANGING REVIEW OF THE 10 YEARS FOLLOWING THE SUMMIT -- WORLD SUMMIT MEETING OF INFORMATION SOCIETY AS WELL AS A DEEPER DISCUSSION ON ETHICS AND PRIVACY AT THE UNESCO LEVEL.
>GIVEN THE ABOVE, MAY I SAY THAT WE ARE STRONG BELIEVERS THAT THE CYBER-SPACE -- AND I'M SURE THAT BELIEF IS SHARED BY ALL OF US -- THE CYBER-SPACE SHOULD BE THE TERRITORY OF TRUST, HUMAN RIGHTS, CITIZENSHIP, COLLABORATION, AND PEACE.
>TO ACHIEVE THESE OBJECTIVES, WE MUST AGREE ON BASIC PRINCIPLES THAT WILL ULTIMATELY GUIDE INTERNET GOVERNANCE.
>AS REGARDS PRIVACY, THE RESOLUTION PASSED BY THE UNITED NATIONS ORGANIZATION WAS AN IMPORTANT STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION, BUT WE MUST -- BUT WE STILL HAVE MUCH PROGRESS TO MAKE.
>ANY DATA COLLECTION OR TREATMENT SHOULD ONLY BE CARRIED OUT WITH FULL AGREEMENT OF THE PARTIES INVOLVED OR AS LEGALLY PROVIDED FOR.
>HOWEVER, THE DISCUSSION ON PRINCIPLES IS MUCH MORE COMPREHENSIVE. IT SHOULD -- AND I STRESS IT SHOULD -- INCLUDE UNIVERSAL INTERNET ACCESS, WHICH IS ABSOLUTELY KEY FOR THE WEB TO SERVE AS A TOOL FOR HUMAN AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT SO AS TO ULTIMATELY HELP BUILD INCLUSIVE, NONDISCRIMINATORY SOCIETIES.
>IT SHOULD ALSO INCLUDE FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AND NET NEUTRALITY AS AN SINE BRAZIL HAS ITS CONTRIBUTIONS TO MAKE FOLLOWING A BROAD RANGING DISCUSSION, DOMESTIC PROCESS THAT HAS ULTIMATELY LED TO THE PASSING OF THE INTERNET CIVIL FRAMEWORK ACT AS PASSED YESTERDAY BY CONGRESS IN WHICH I HAD THE HONOR OF SANCTIONING JUST A FEW MINUTES AGO. THE LAW -- AND I MAY QUOTE TIM BERNERS-LEE WHO QUOTED THE LAW AS A PRESIDENT TO THE WEB ON THE OCCASION OF THE 20th -- OR 25th ANNIVERSARY AS SUCH THE LAW CLEARLY SHOWS THE FEASIBILITY AND SUCCESS OF OPEN MULTISECTORIAL DISCUSSIONS AS WELL AS THE INNOVATIVE USE OF THE INTERNET AS PART OF ONGOING DISCUSSIONS AS A TOOL AND A INTERACTIVE DISCUSSION PLATFORM.
>I THINK IT IS FAIR TO SAY THAT THE PROCESS THAT LED UP TO THE CIVIL FRAMEWORK ACT CAN BE DESCRIBED AS A VIRTUOUS PROCESS IN THAT OUR CIVIL FRAMEWORK, AS IT CURRENTLY STANDS, HAS BEEN EVEN FURTHER APPRECIATED GIVEN THE PROCESS THAT PRECEDED THE EFFORTS TO ESTABLISH IT AS SUCH.
>MAY I, THEREFORE, CALL TO MIND THAT OUR CIVIL FRAMEWORK ESTABLISHES PRINCIPLES, GUARANTEES AND USER RIGHTS, CLEARLY ASSIGNING DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE DIFFERENT STAKEHOLDERS AND GOVERNMENT AGENCIES ON AN ONLINE ENVIRONMENT. AND EQUALLY IMPORTANT, IT ENSHRINES NETWORK NEUTRALITY AS A KEY PRINCIPLE, A MAJOR GAIN WHICH WE WERE ABLE TO MATERIALIZE AS A CONSENSUS IN THE PROCESS.
>IT ENSHRINES NETWORK NEUTRALITY BY ESTABLISHING THE TELECOMMUNICATIONS COMPANY SHOULD TREAT ANY DATA PACKAGES ON IN A --- FASHION WITH ACCOUNT TO AGENT, DESTINATION, SERVICE, TERMINAL OR APPLICATION. THE LAW OR FRAMEWORK AS HAS TRULY ENSHRINED NETWORK NEUTRALITY. FURTHERMORE, COMPANIES MAY NOT BLOCK, MONITOR, FILTER OR ANALYZE THE CONTENT OF DATA PACKAGES.
>THE CIVIL FRAMEWORK PROTECTS CITIZENS' PRIVACY IN THE ONLY IN THE RELATION WITH THE GOVERNMENTS BUT ALSO WITH RELATION WITH THE INTERNET COMPANIES. COMMUNICATIONS ARE, BY DEFINITION, NON-VIABLE EXCEPT BY A SPECIFIC COURT ORDER TO THAT EFFECT. THE RECENTLY PASSED LAW FURTHER CONTAINS CLEAR RULES GOVERNING WITHDRAWAL OF CONTENT FROM THE INTERNET. ALWAYS, OF COURSE, WITH A VIEW TO ENSURING THAT THE APPLICABLE COURT ORDERS BE AVAILABLE.
>THE CIVIL NETWORK IS AN EXAMPLE OF THE FACT THAT THE INTERNET DEVELOPMENT CANNOT DO IT WITHOUT A DISCUSSION PROCESS AND THE INVOLVEMENT OF NATIONAL STATES. AS SUCH, IT STANDS AS AN INNOVATIVE BENCHMARK MILESTONES BECAUSE IN ITS DEVELOPMENT PROCESS, WE HEARD THE VOICES OF THE STREETS, THE NETWORKS AND OF DIFFERENT INSTITUTIONS.
>FOR ALL OF THE ABOVE, IT IS OUR FIRM CONVICTION THAT ON A NETWORK, EACH NODE MATTERS. THE LARGE NODES SUCH AS THE MEGA PORTALS TO WHICH A SUBSTANTIAL AMOUNT OF WORLD TRAFFIC CONVERGES AND SMALL NODES ARE EQUALLY IMPORTANT.
>AT THIS TIME, I WOULD LIKE TO BRING TO THE FORE A KEY FUNDAMENTAL ISSUE AND TALK ABOUT THE FACT THAT THIS COUNTRY HAS TAKEN A MAJOR STEP FORWARD AS PART OF THE ONGOING PROCESS WHEREBY WE NOT ONLY INCLUDE BUT ALSO GUARANTEE A STEADY STREAM OF INCOME TO A SUBSTANTIAL SHARE OF THE POPULATION.
>INCOME AND ACCESS ARE EQUALLY IMPORTANT. WE BELIEVE THAT IT IS EQUALLY IMPORTANT TO ENSURE WE HAVE PLACE IN SOCIETY WHERE CITIZENS HAVE THEIR OWN VIEWS AND THEY ARE ABLE TO VOICE THEIR VIEWS FREELY. HENCE, THE INVALUABLE DEGREE OF IMPORTANCE WE ATTACH TO THE INTERNET IN OUR SOCIETY.
>WE ALSO HAVE YET ANOTHER MAJOR ASSET. I'M TALKING ABOUT BRAZIL'S ETHNIC CULTURAL, POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS DIVERSITY. IT IS OURS TO NOT ONLY RESPECT BUT ALSO PROMOTE AND FOSTER OUR CULTURAL DIVERSITY. WE DO NOT WISH TO IMPOSE BELIEFS, CUSTOMS, VALUES OR POLITICAL VIEWS ON ANYONE.
>MAY I PARTICULARLY HIGHLIGHT THE THOUSANDS OF USERS THAT MULTIPLY ON A DAY-TO-DAY BASIS NOT ONLY HERE BUT IN ALL THE DEVELOPING COUNTRIES IN THE OUTSKIRTS OF LARGE URBAN AREAS AND ALSO IN TRADITIONAL COMMUNITIES OUT THERE. ALL OF THESE NEW USERS ENRICH THE NETWORK WITH NEW ALTERNATIVE IDEAS AND ACCOUNTS OF THE WORLD, NEW WORLD VISIONS. THESE PEOPLE MAKE THE INTERNET A STRONGER AND MORE UNIVERSAL PLATFORM.
>AND IT IS ON THEIR BEHALF AND BECAUSE OF THEM, THAT I WOULD LIKE TO AGAIN VOICE MY THANKS TO ALL OF YOU FOR ATTENDING THIS MEETING IN SAO PAULO. FOR US, THE INTERNET IS A MODERN-DAY PRO EMANCIPATION, PRO TRANSFORMATION TOOL THAT CHANGES SOCIETY. SWEEPING CHANGES ARE INTRODUCED THROUGH THE INTERNET. YOU ARE ALL MOST WELCOME. AND I HOPE YOU WILL ALL COME BACK FOR THE WORLD CUP OF ALL CUPS. IF NOT, MAKE SURE YOU WATCH IT THROUGH THE INTERNET. THANK YOU VERY MUCH AGAIN.
>[APPLAUSE ]
>>> LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, WE THANK YOU FOR THE PRESENCE OF YOU ALL. WE CLOSE NOW THIS CEREMONY.
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For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/netmundial-transcript-archive

NETmundial Day 2

achal — 2014-04-25T04:58:26Z

Fadi Chehade, the ICANN boss, closed NETmundial 2014 with these words "In Africa we say if you want to go first, go alone, but if you want to go far, go together." He should have added: And if you want to go nowhere, go multi-stakeholder.

For all the talk of an inclusive global meeting, there was exactly one governmental submission from the African continent, and it was from Tunisia; and the overall rate of submissions from Africa and West Asia were generally very low.

The outcome document perfectly reflects the gloss that the "multi-stakeholder" model was designed to achieve: an outcome that is celebrated by businesses (and by all embedded institutions like ICANN) for being harmless, met with relief by governments for not upsetting the status quo, all of it lit up in the holy glow of "consensus" from civil society.

Of course there was no consensus. Civil society groups who organised on Day 0 put up their position: the shocking omission of a strong case for net neutrality, ambiguous language on surveillance, weak defences of free expression and privacy. All valid points. But it's striking that civil society takes such a pliant position towards authority: other than exactly two spirited protests (one against the data retention in Marco Civil, and the other against the NSA's mass surveillance program) there was no confrontation, no provocation, no passionate action that would give civil society the force it needs to win. If we were to compare this to other international struggles, the gay rights battle, or its successor, the AIDS medicines movement, for instance - what a difference there is. People fought to crush with powerful, forceful action. Only after huge victories with public and media sympathy, and only after turning themselves into equals of the corporations and governments they were fighting, did they allow themselves to sit down at the table and negotiate nicely. Internet governance fora are marked by politeness and passivity, and perhaps - however sad - it's no wonder that the least powerful groups in these fora always come away disappointed.

It's also surprising that there is no language in the outcome document that explicitly addresses the censorious threat posed by the global expansion of a sovereign application of copyright, as seen most vividly in the proposed SOPA/PIPA legislation in the United States. The outcome document has language that seems to more or less reflect the civil society proposal, and it's possible that a generous interpretation of the language could mean that it opposes the selective, restrictive and damaging application of what the intellectual property industries want to accomplish on the Internet. But it's puzzling that the language isn't stronger or more explicit, and even more puzzling that civil society doesn't seem to want to fight for such language.

This seems like an appropriate time to end the multi-stakeholder diaries. Hasn't the word been used enough? Here is one last instalment. We thank the kind folks who gave us their time.

Q: What does "multi-stakeholder" mean? What is "multi-stakeholderism"?

A large part of the discourse prior to the NETmundial conference has been centered around the issue of what is the best structural system to regulate a global network – this has commonly been portrayed as a choice between a multistakeholder system – which broadly speaking, aims to place ‘all stakeholders’ on equal footing – against multilateralism – a recognized concept in International law / the Comity of Nation States, where a nation state is recognized as the representative of its citizens, making decisions on their behalf and in their interests.

In our opinion, the issue is not about the dichotomy between multilateralism and multistakeholderism; it is about what functions or issues can legitimately be dealt with through each of the processes in terms of adequately protecting civil liberties and other public interest principles – including the appropriate enforcement of norms. For instance, how do you deal with something like cyber warfare without the consent of states? Similarly, how do we address regulatory issues such as determining (and possibly subsidizing) costs of access, or indeed to protect a right of a country against unilateral disconnection?

.....The crux of the matter rests in deciding which is the best governance ‘basket’ to include a particular issue within – taken from both a substantive and enforcement perspective. The challenge is trying to demarcate issues to ensure that each is dealt with effectively by placing it in an appropriate bucket. (The full post can be accessed here).
Rishab Bailey from the Society for Knowledge Commons (India)

If I would have signed the campaign http://wepromise.eu as a candidate to the European Parliament I would have made it an election promise to defend "the principle of multistakeholderism".

That means that I "support free, open, bottom-up, and multi-stakeholder models of coordinating the Internet resources and standards - names, numbers, addresses etc" and that I "support measures which seek to ensure the capacity of representative civil society to participate in multi-stakeholder forums." Further, I "oppose any attempts by corporate, governmental or intergovernmental agencies to take control of Internet governance."

My very rudimentary personal view is basically that it's a bad idea to institutionalise conflicting competences.
Erik Josefsson, Adviser on Internet policies for the Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament

And so it ends.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/net-mundial-day-2

NETmundial Day 1

achal — 2014-04-24T09:02:49Z

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff's speech at the opening of NETmundial in São Paulo was refreshingly free of the UN-speak that characterised virtually every single other presentation this morning. The experience of sitting for five hours in a room where the word "multi-stakeholder" is repeated at the rate of five mentions per minute is not for the faint-hearted; it almost makes you wish for more of the straight-talking tough-love of people like Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt.

Surveillance was mentioned by a few brave souls. Two peaceful, silent - and rather effective - protests broke out during the opening speeches; one, against the data retention clause in Brazil's otherwise path-breaking and brand-new law for civil rights on the Internet, Marco Civil, and another for honouring US NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden and urging action against surveillance. Sadly for Brazilian civil society, the Marco Civil protestations went unheard, and Rousseff signed the bill into law in full.

There were lots of speeches. Lots. If you missed them, here's a handy visualisation you can use to catch up quickly: just add some prepositions and conjunctions, and you'll have a perfectly anodyne and universally acceptable bureaucrat/politician keynote address.

The afternoon was given over to assimilating previously received comments on the outcome document and adding new ones from people in the room. Much contention, much continuity, lots of hard work, lots of nitpicking (some of it even useful) and lots of ambiguity; after more consultation - the slog goes on until tomorrow afternoon - the outcome document will be laid to rest. Lunch was excellent: there's a reason the Grand Hyatt São Paulo costs as much as it does.

Our quest to plumb the depths of multi-stakeholderism continued: we thank the kind folks who gave us their time and allowed us to record them.

Q: What does "multi-stakeholder" mean? What is "multi-stakeholderism"?

Multi-stakeholderism to me is the ability to engage with every stakeholder and have them in the room, and have them understand that it is not an equal opportunity for all. I also understand that civil society and academia will never be at the same place as business, which has far more resources, or governments, which have the sovereign right to make laws, or even the technical community, which is often missing from the policy dialogue. There are three things which are important to me: (1) Will I be able to make interventions not just in the dialogue but in the decision making process? For me, that is key. (2) Do I have recourse in a process which might be multilateral or inter-governmental - do I have recourse when international treaties are ratified or signed, because they become binding national laws? and (3) What is it that happens to dissent in a process that is not multi-stakeholder? I think even the ITU (the International Telecommunications Union) has taken cognizance of multi-stakeholderism. So it's not new, but it's also not old or accepted, which is why we contest it. We will never have equal stakeholders. And who gets to represent the stakeholder communities? I don't think power imbalances get resolved, and I think it's a deeply flawed process. It's not perfect. But what worries me is the alternative. So give me a better alternative.
Subi Chaturvedi, Media for Change/ Lady Shriram College (India)

Simply put, multi means many components, and stakeholders are people who have the stakes. So multi-stakeholder means many people who are informed to take the process forward. The process is still on: it's evolving. The idea is that everyone who has an interest should bring it forward, and the dialogue must be balanced. Proof of concept is important - it's not about taking a dogmatic position but a scientific position. Business is concerned about the justification around return on investment.
Jimson Olufuye, Africa ICT Alliance (Nigeria)

Everyone who has a stake in the use and operation of the Internet should have a stake in the way it is managed. I think we shouldn't be considering this as a power game - it's not winner takes all. Decision making should be as much as possible consensual, where no one has a veto power.
Getachew Engida, Deputy Director-General, UNESCO (France)

It is very simple. I think people are complicating matters. It's not a power game. The Internet is fundamentally a global network of interconnected computers. People have become not only consumers of information but providers of information, so the stakes in the media/ICT world are massive. Unprecedented. Therefore, around major issues confronting the Internet, decision making should be as participatory as possible.
Indrajit Banerjee, Director, UNESCO (France)

Additional Links

Watch Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff's speech at the opening of NETmundial
Follow Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt on Twitter

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/net-mundial-day-1

NETmundial Day 0

achal — 2014-04-23T10:58:50Z

Day O of NETmundial began at Arena NetMundial, an alternative-ish, Brazilian counterpart to the official "multistakeholder" meeting being organised at the very expensive Grand Hyatt. Arena NETmundial began today and will extend until the last day of NETmundial; it's being organised at the very democratic Centro Cultural São Paulo - free to all, no registration required - and offers space for a whole host of organised and spontaneous activity.

Every evening is capped by a music performance, and the opening act was a stand-out two-hour visual extravaganza by Tom Zé, Tropicalia's most avant-garde exponent. Lula (Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the previous President of Brazil) was supposed to join us at 7 p.m. today to discuss Marco Civil da Internet - the Brazilian bill for "civil rights" on the Internet - but was a no show.

No matter: Marco Civil was passed into law by the Senate at about 8 p.m. this evening, and President Dilma Rousseff (who reportedly willed this meeting into being) is expected to sign her assent to it tomorrow morning at the opening of NETmundial, which she is scheduled to attend. (While the global press around Marco Civil is unanimously positive and upbeat, it's worth noting that there is one problematic provision — the issue of data retention — that many folks from Brazilian civil society see as a huge loss).

A host of civil society groups spent the day at Arena NETmundial figuring out how to stage a coordinated, detailed and forceful response to what many saw as watered-down text from the NETmundial organisers. (Several corporate representatives and some academics also saw it as watered-down, but from another direction).

There are several puzzling aspects to the shape NETmundial has assumed. What began as a response to the Snowden leaks — the unprecedented scale of the US government sponsored, NSA-executed surveillance — has become a meeting that strangely doesn't have all that much to say about surveillance, perhaps thanks to the various partners roped in to manage the process. There is little that references the bitter SOPA/PIPA battles of two years ago, and not much in the NETmundial outcome document that addresses the manner in which a sovereign state has outrageously sought to export its national application of copyright onto the global Internet landscape. The civil society meeting produced language to address both these situations.

Perhaps the most confounding aspect of this meeting is the manner in which the word "multistakeholder" is thrown about by people of every political stripe. Seemingly, if there is one thing that most everyone, from governments to businesses to civil society activists at NETmundial agree on, it is that multistakeholderism has an essential place in the future of Internet governance.

That being as it is, I asked a bunch of people what their interpretation of the term was, and many agreed to be recorded. Their answers were surprising, to say the least.

This is what they said:

Q: What does "multi-stakeholder" mean? What is "multi-stakeholderism"?

I think multistakeholderism is a kind of democracy, which means, in the public policy area, other than the critical internet resources, usually only governments make public policy. They sometimes consult with other stakeholders, but it is not usually open or transparent and it is very selective. They only choose the experts they like. I think "multistakeholder" is useful in comparison with an inter-governmental or governmental process.

Byoungil Oh from the Korean Progressive Network Jinbonet

Multistakeholderism is a mechanism to ensure that people who are affected or have the potential to be affected by a policy or a technical decision get to have a say in the decision, in the process, or in coming to a decision, so that their rights — the rights of the affected people — are assured. I think there should be some sort of equity, currently the way multistakeholderism is being carried out is that certain stakeholders carry much higher weight and I think that is something that needs to be addressed.

YoungEum Lee from Korea National Open University (Korea)

If multistakeholderism is a form of institutionalising participatory democracy, then it's good. But public policy decision making is only something that the representatives of people can do. For me, that's sacrosanct. When you're taking in views, in consultation, multistakeholderism works. But public policy decision-making, at a global level, has to be a multilateral process. However, it has to be embedded into a huge amount of public consultations, transparencies, accountabilities, etc., which could be a multistakeholder system.

Parminder Jeet Singh from IT for Change (ITFC) (India)

I hate with a passion the concept of multistakeholderism. For me, how it can make sense is by recognising there are multiple stakeholders. And they’re not fixed. But issues affect different people in different ways and these people need to be involved in decision making processes. It's an approach that can potentially democratise processes by identifying who is affected by those processes and making sure they participate in them. But turning them into an -ism which is undifferentiated, which doesn't recognise conflict, power, voice, and that there are differences, makes it meaningless and also possibly dangerous.

Anriette Esterhuysen from the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) (South Africa)

This multistakeholderism thing I think is bullshit. We now a have a clear picture of technology as a whole being turned against its users, being turned into a tool for oppression, for control. And when you look at the most important struggles of the 20th century, whether women's rights or civil rights or gay rights, it never happened with a total global consensus. This is an illusion. What we need is to affirm that we citizens have the right to decide. We are the only stakeholders here, because we are the co-owners of the Internet as a public good.

Jérémie Zimmermann, co-founder of La Quadrature du Net (France)

Everyone has to participate, and everyone has to decide what is the future of the Internet. I think that we need to improve our networks. There is no real answer here: for me it is very difficult to think of the kind of discussion we will have, but I know that my voice is probably useful for others who are in a similar situation to me.

Pilar Saenz from the Karisma Foundation (Colombia)

Multistakeholderism means that we are going to smash the patriarchy. Ask me what the colour blue means? [Ok: What does the colour blue mean?] The colour blue means we are going to smash the patriarchy.

Jacob Appelbaum, journalist, activist and core member of the TOR Project (USA/Germany)

Ultimately rights are embedded in laws. But when it comes to an international framework, in the current Internet governance model, nothing is based in law, including the domain name system. So the whole structure of international Internet governance is divorced from international law, and that's why, when you talk of a multistakeholder model, what you are really saying is that the market will finally determine what happens. No stakeholder is going to operate against its own interest whether it be governments or corporations. We need an international legal framework, from which the powers - or rights - of Internet governance emerge. Without that you're leaving it to the market. In reality, even today, what we have is a private-sector-led multistakeholder model.

Prabir Purkayastha from Knowledge Commons and the JustNet Coalition (India)

What does multistakeholderism mean? Listen, I'm a brown person from a developing country, and I'm female.

Anonymous

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/net-mundial-day-0

Netizen Report: Transparency Edition

praskrishna — 2011-11-09T04:31:48Z

Global Voices Online has carried a feature story, "Netizen Report: Transparency Edition". We at CIS had filed an RTI application about website blocking. This is reflected in this article by Rebecca MacKinnon which was posted online on 7 November 2011.

Here at Global Voices Advocacy we believe that transparency by governments and companies about how and when censorship and surveillance takes place is a base-line requirement if the Internet is ever to be governed in a manner that is compatible with free expression, dissent, and citizens' right to organize and assemble. Thus we applaud Google's latest Transparency Report - the company's fourth such report detailing government requests for user data and content removal, as well as the traffic flows (or lack thereof) to Google webistes across the world since July 2009. The new data for January-June 2011 contains more detail than in the past, including data on how Google responded to the requests and whether they were honored. The data comes with a list of caveats including that automated content removal is not logged and that some data cannot be released due to local law. Nonetheless, we hope that Google's data will provide an interesting snap shot of the state of Internet affairs and the data could be used to hold governments accountable to their censorship activities. We believe that if all Internet companies disclosed similar data, the world would be further on its way to being a better place. Many articles have been written analyzing the data. A few of them include:

TechPresident: Google Data Shows Government Internet Surveillance Far Outstrips Wiretap Requests
WIRED: U.S. Requests for Google User Data Spike 29 Percent in Six Months
Huffington Post:The 13 Countries That Request The Most User Data From Google
CNet: Google: Governments seek more about you than ever

Adding to the publicly available data about censorship around the world, the Open Net Initiative has released its research data on global Internet filtering, covering seventy-four countries.

Thuggery: Read the latest news on GVA about bloggers jailed in Egypt, Syria, and Kuwait and spread the word.

Surveillance: As GVA and others have recently reported, 13 Internet filtering devices produced by the California-based company Blue Coat have made their way to Syria. According to the Wall Street Journal, Blue Coat executives say that the company will not sell the devices to countries that are under embargo by the United States, and that the devices found in Syria had been sold to a dealer who claimed they were destined for Iraq.

The Wall Street Journal has had several other items related to the role of companies in global surveillance, including a report on how China's Huawei has been peddling its mobile phone tracking and censoring equipment to Iran.

In India, Research in Motion has set up a facility in Mumbai to help the Indian government carry out lawful surveillance of its BlackBerry services including the messenger chat service, but the WSJ reports that India still has no method to intercept and decode BlackBerry enterprise email.

In Russia, bloggers' influence has apparently made the Kremlin nervous. Reporters Without Borders has condemned plans by the Russian government to deploy new software to track “extremist” content on the web, highlighting concerns about an over-broad definition of “extremist,” and the arbitrary and disproportionate approach to punishment and sanctions against websites. For more on the Russian Internet be sure to follow Global Voices' Runet Echo Project.

Moving on the United States, The Guardian has a fascinating report on the super-secret Intelligence Support Systems World Americas conference held recently in Washington DC, at which surveillance professionals shared the latest surveillance technologies and innovations that they don't want you to know about. Hacktivist and friend of GVA Jacob Appelbaum managed to get in, but was thrown out.

On a more positive note in the United States, the Washington Post reports that since 2009 many Internet companies have been more assertive about challenging “national security letters” from the FBI requesting information about users.

The Guardian reports that Civil liberties and privacy groups in the United Kingdom have raised concerns about the deployment by the London Metropolitan Police of a "covert surveillance technology that can masquerade as a mobile phone network, transmitting a signal that allows authorities to shut off phones remotely, intercept communications and gather data about thousands of users in a targeted area."

Techdirt reports on the European Union's desire to have a “black box' built in to operating systems that would store a record of all of the computer's internet usage. The EU argues that this ability would be useful in cracking down on child pornography. The system that the EU is looking at as a possible candidate for role of ‘black box' is called LogBox. The developer of LogBox claims that the device is for preserving the freedoms and privacy of internet users, although Techdirt points out the fact that this device does little to ‘protect' the privacy of online users, it in fact, would make anonymous actions on the internet much more difficult and would provide governments and law enforcement a huge set of data on every internet user.

Censorship: The chief executives of China's 39 top Internet, telecom, and computer companies have agreed to “strengthen self-control, self-restraint and strict self-discipline” in order to “contain the tendency of spreading online rumours, pornography, fraud and other illegal, harmful information on the internet.” The move comes amidst a broader crackdown on the Internet and social media.

In India, the Bangalore-based Centre for Internet and Society submitted a right to information request to the government's Department of Information Technology, asking for more information about website blocking. Based on DIT's response the Centre observes that “The data provided by the government seemingly conflicts with the data released by the likes of Google." Their conclusion: "Either the DIT is not providing us all the relevant information on blocking, or is not following the law."

Courts in Belgium and Finland have ordered ISPs to block the Pirate Bay.

The U.S. House Judiciary Committee has recently proposed a bill aimed at protecting intellectual property online that some critics describe as the beginning of a "Great Firewall of America". The Electronic Frontier Foundation and others have detailed the bill's problems, including lack of due process, near certainty of over-blocking and abuse, imposition of excessive liability on Internet intermediaries, global legitimization of DNS censorship and potential fragmentation of the Internet, among other things. It is considered even worse than its evil fraternal twin in the Senate, the PROTECT IP Act which is also opposed by many tech companies and non-profit groups. Despite such opposition, the bill draws relatively broad support from lawmakers.

Net Neutrality: South African technology journalist Jan Vermeulen ran the M-Lab's Glasnost Test on South African ISP's to see whether their stated bandwith shaping policies match up with reality.

The growth of bandwidth intensive internet applications in South Korea has made Net Neutrality an important issue there. South Korean ISP's are reporting that it is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain neutral practices with content. The three largest telecommunications companies in Korea are worried by the rise of Smart TV's, which use Internet connections as opposed to traditional cable or satellite links to provide content. The ISP's want to charge companies varying amounts depending on the type and amount of content sent.

Internet Governance: ICANN held its 42nd public meeting in Dakar, Senegal late last month. Wendy Seltzer reported here on GVA why the seemingly arcane debates about domain name registrar accreditation is important. Konstantinos Komaitis, an active member of ICANN's Non-Commercial Stakeholder Group (Global Voices is also a member), describes the struggle that is taking place took place between governments and other ICANN stakeholders over whether some stakeholders are more equal than others within ICANN's multi-stakeholder governance model. Kieren McCarthy at dotNext also has an in-depth report and analysis on the clash between governments and registrars over law enforcement regarding domain names. Over at the Internet Governance Project Milton Mueller takes an in-depth look at the politics surrounding the Non-Commercial Stakeholder Group and related constituencies, and the fight for civil society representation at ICANN.

India has published a formal proposal to put the UN in charge of overseeing Internet governance. For different analyses by three Internet governance wonks see Kieren McCarthy, Milton Mueller, and Jeremy Malcolm.

The International Telecommunications Union has approved a new protocol for relaying biometric information. The protocol is intended to enable doctors to communicate data about patients safely and is geared towards developing countries where the access to medical care in rural areas is poor and communication between clinics and doctors would provide better patient care. You can read the full press release here.

Netizen Power: Lee Yoo Eun at Global Voices reports that the October 26th Seoul mayoral election was swayed by the use of twitter. Read the full article here.

African entrepreneur Herman Chinery-Hesse gave a speech at the Tech 4 Africa conference highlighting what the rise of Internet Communication Technologies has done for Africa. A synopsis of his talk can be found on the Tech4Africa.

Sovereigns of Cyberspace: Facebook has introduced a new “guardian angel” feature to help users restore locked accounts.

The 13th Austrian Big Brother Awards were held on October 25th in Vienna. “Winners” included the CEO of Telekom Austria, the Ministers of Interior and Justice, and the head of the anti-terror police unit. Mark Zuckerberg received the “lifelong menace” award and a “Defender of Liberty” award went to the creators of the “Europe versus Facebook” campaign.

The Silicon Valley Human Rights Conference was held in San Francisco in late October (see GVA's report, Jillian York's report, and The Economist's) and released the Silicon Valley Standard, a set of 15 principles that technology companies should follow in order to protect human rights.

China's Weibo plans to launch an English version in partnership with Flipboard and Instagram. Will they agree to follow the Silicon Valley Standard?

Security Alert: The security researcher Barnaby Jack has found it possible to conduct a blind attack on insulin pumps. While there have been no reports of anyone being harmed by such an attack, this highlights how far behind security technologies are when it comes to wireless devices that are embedded in critical infrastructure and medicine.

Publications: Digital Cameras Reduce Electoral Corruption by Michael Callen and James Long.

Events: Check out this handy calendar of Internet-related events around the world, courtesy of Internews!

Access Contested: Security, Identity, and Resistance in Asian Cyberspace, by the OpenNet Initiative, to be officially released in December. Part I of the book (including a chapter by yours truly) can be read online or downloaded here.

Note: This report was compiled with considerable help from Ted Eby and Weiping Li.

Read the original article here

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/netizen-report

Netizen Report: The EU Wrestles With Facebook Over Privacy

praskrishna — 2016-02-27T07:39:01Z

Global Voices Advocacy's Netizen Report offers an international snapshot of challenges, victories, and emerging trends in Internet rights around the world.

The blog post published in Global Voices on February 11, 2016 quotes Pranesh Prakash and Subhashish Panigrahi.

In the latest development in the negotiations between the United States and European Union over data transfer rules, Reuters reports France’s data protection authority gave Facebook three months to stop tracking non-users’ Web activity without their consent, and ordered Facebook to cease some transfers of personal data to the United States or face fines. In response, Facebook asserted it does not use the now-defunct Safe Harbor agreement to move data to the United States and instead has set up alternative legal structures to keep its data transfers in line with EU law. Despite this, Facebook was forced last year to stop tracking Belgian non-users after it was taken to court by the Belgian regulator. Last week, the United States and European Union agreed upon a new legal framework to replace Safe Harbor, but as it is not yet operational, several European data protection authorities are still deciding whether data transfers should be restricted.

Big Blow for Facebook’s Free Basics

Indian regulators officially banned “differential pricing”or discriminatory tariffs placed on data services depending on their content. This means that Internet users in India are guaranteed equal access to any website they want, regardless of how they connect to the Internet, ays Global Voices’ Subhashish Panigrahi. The decision is a particular blow to Facebook’s Free Basics application, which uses differential pricing mechanisms to make accessing Facebook, WhatsApp and a limited number of other websites free to users who do not pay for mobile data plans. Though Facebook promotes the program as a means to increasing digital access, it has come under backlash in India and a number of other countries. Internet policy expert Pranesh Prakash emphasizedthat though the ruling is a win for open access in India, these efforts must continue until India is truly and equally connected.

Google’s new scheme to combat online extremism

In an effort to combat groups like ISIS that recruit online, Google has launched apilot schemeto point users who search for extremist terms toward anti-radicalization links. It announced the new effort on February 2 at a meeting with the U.K. Home Affairs Select Committee on Countering Extremism. Representatives of Twitter and Facebook were also challenged by members of Parliament on their role in combatting the spread of terrorist material. Twitter announcedthat it had suspended 125,000 accounts associated with extremism since mid-2015 in response to pressure from the US government. However, as the New York Times’ Mike Isaac notes, “these companies must walk a fine line between bearing responsibility for their platforms and avoiding becoming the arbiter of what constitutes free speech.”

What’s going to happen to Ukraine’s database of ‘explicit content’?

The Ukrainian censorship body, National Expert Commission for Protection of Public Morality, dissolved last year, but its legacy lives on as a database of “explicit content” that no one in the government seems to know what to do with. The database includes a sizeable amount of content “containing elements of sexual nature and erotica,” but the commission was also well known for its attempt to ban Spongebob Squarepants, Shrek, and Teletubbies. Users have suggested the team responsible for dissolving the commission make the content more widely available, so they can see where taxpayers’ money went.

How to protect yourself from government hacking

Hacking human rights workers, journalists, and NGOs has become common practice for governments around the world, according to Amnesty International’s Morgan Marquis-Boire and Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Eva Galperin. In a post for Amnesty International, the two provide a brief history of government hacking and give suggestions for NGOs and human rights organizations to protect themselves.

Taking on Russia’s invasive surveillance

Two Russian Internet service providers are taking the Federal Security Service to court to challenge the surveillance system employed by Russian federal police to spy on Internet use. ISPs play a critical role in making surveillance possible, by installing expensive equipment that provides police access—making this case a significant affront to Russia’s invasive surveillance apparatus.

Telegram in Iran

Messaging app Telegram’s growing influence is being characterized as a major factor in the dissemination and spread of information leading up to Iran’s Feb. 26 parliamentary elections, but the platform’s susceptibility to state manipulation is also becoming more apparent. After the arrest of former BBC journalist Bahman Doroshafaei, the government took over his Telegram account and started to message his contacts. Some believe this was an effort to extract sensitive information or to distribute spyware. Fatemeh Shams, a friend of Doroshafaei, posted the following warning to her Facebook account:

Someone has been talking to me for two hours from Bahman's hacked Telegram account and now is chatting with my friends with my account..If anyone messaged you on Telegram [from my account] please ignore it. I've lost access to my account.

Mahsa Alimardani, Ellery Roberts Biddle, Hae-in Lim and Sarah Myers West contributed to this report.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/global-voices-february-11-2016-netizen-report

Net Neutrality: India is a Keybattle Ground

praskrishna — 2015-09-20T07:08:42Z

Hardnews talks to Sunil Abraham, the executive director of the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), about the future of the Internet in India.

The article by Abeer Kapoor was published in Hardnews on August 10, 2015.

There are competing definitions of net neutrality. What do you think an Indian definition of net neutrality should be?
It should be driven by an empirical understanding of the harms and benefits for Indian consumers. Any regulation should be based on evidence of harm. Forbearance should be the first option for any regulator. The second option is mandating transparency. The third option, as (Managing Director of the World Dialogue on Regulation for Network Economies Programme) William Melody says, should be raising competition before we consider other more intrusive regulatory measures such as price regulation, mandatory registration and licensing, etc. Telling network administrators how to run their networks should be the very last option we consider. Ideally, the Competition Commission of India should have started an investigation into the competition harms emerging from network neutrality violations. There are other harms emerging from network neutrality violations, such as free speech harms, diversity harms, innovation harms and privacy harms. These residual elements should have been the focus of the TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) consultation paper process, the DoT (Department of Telecommunications) panel process and the consultations of the parliamentary standing committee.

There are certain rights that are essential, like privacy. How do you think the right to privacy will play into the definition of Indian net neutrality?
Deep packet inspection – which is a method that is used to manage Internet traffic and walled garden access via mobile applications – causes significant privacy harms and gives rise to a range of security vulnerabilities. These cannot be directly addressed in network neutrality policy. On privacy and security, it is not clear that the Indian situation is different from the global trend, so it is unlikely that we will have an India-specific privacy language in our network neutrality policy.

Privacy harms caused by network neutrality violations have to be addressed by enacting the privacy bill into law. The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has been working on this Bill for the last five or six years. The latest draft has implemented the recommendations of the Justice AP Shah Committee. The last leak of the privacy Bill revealed that the DoPT has included the nine principles identified by the Shah Committee Report on Privacy. We hope that the government will introduce this Bill at the earliest. Section 43A of the IT Act may also need to be amended to address all the nine privacy principles.

The report drafted by DoT on net neutrality is ambiguous and almost reluctant to take a stand. What are the key points of this report?
The DoT panel report does take a stand. It clearly identifies network neutrality as a policy goal. Unfortunately, the panel did not provide its own definition of network neutrality, but instead quoted a definition submitted by civil society activists who testified before it without explicitly adopting it. The panel report examines zero rating and legitimate traffic management in quite a bit of detail and does prescribe some regulatory decision trees to the policymakers. When it comes to specialised services and walled gardens there could have been more detailed and specific recommendations. The biggest disappointment in the report is the call for licensing of those OTT (Over the Top) service providers that provide equivalent services to those provided by telcos. While the need to address regulatory arbitrage from the perspective of privacy and surveillance law may be virtuous, it may not be technically feasible to do so, especially if there is end-to-end encryption. Also, regulatory arbitrage could be addressed by reducing regulations for telcos rather than increasing them for OTT providers.

Do you think licensing and regulation of OTT services such as Google and WhatsApp are a necessity?
It is a myth that they exist in a regulatory vacuum. Many regulations do apply to them and a few of them do comply with Indian authorities on issues like speech regulation, legal interception and also data access. With competition law and taxation there is very little compliance. The trouble is not that there are regulatory vacuums, but rather that these services operate from foreign jurisdictions. Without offices, servers and human resources within the Indian jurisdiction it is very difficult for the courts to implement their orders, and for law enforcement to ensure compliance with Indian laws. This jurisdictional challenge affects most developing countries and not just India, and can only be solved by harmonising procedural and substantive law across jurisdictions, through the spread of soft norms, development of self-regulatory mechanisms using the multi-stakeholder models and through the creation of international law through various multilateral and pluri-lateral bodies.

The report reduces the neutrality debate to ‘access.’ Do you think this approach is reductive?
Access is very important in the Indian context so I don’t see how that is reductive. Many observers believe that the next round in the war for network neutrality will happen in the global South. India is a key battleground – what happens here will have global impact and implications. Network neutrality policies need to consider free speech, privacy, competition, diversity and innovation goals of the markets they seek to regulate. If we are not being doctrinaire about network neutrality we could adopt what (Professor of Internet & Media Law at the University of Sussex) Chris Marsden calls forward-looking “positive net neutrality” wherein “higher QoS (Quality of Service) for higher prices should be offered on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory [FRAND] terms to all comers”. FRAND, according to Prof. Marsden, is well understood by the telcos and ISPs (Internet Service Providers) as it is the basis of common carriage. This understanding of network neutrality allows for technical and business model innovation by ISPs and telcos without the associated harms. There are zero-rating services being launched by Mozilla, Jaana, Mavin and others that are attempting to do this. I do not believe that they violate network neutrality principles, unlike Airtel Zero or Internet.org.

While this report attempts to arrive at a middle ground between the TSPs and the OTTs, how is this going to reflect in the government’s ‘Digital India’ programme?
We know we have a policy solution when all stakeholders are equally unhappy. But we also need an elegant solution that is easy to implement. Scholars like (Associate Professor of Computer Science at Columbia University) Vishal Mishra have a theoretical solution based on the Shapley Value, that assumes a multi-sided market model, but this may not work in real life. Professor V. Sridhar of the International Institute of Information Technology, Bengaluru (IIITB) has a very elegant idea of setting a ceiling and floor for price and speed and also for insisting on a minimum QoS of the whole of the Internet. These ideas I have not heard in the American and European debate around network neutrality. I remain hopeful that the Indian middle ground will be qualitatively different, given that the structure and constraints of the Indian telecom sector are very different from that in developed countries. Ensuring network neutrality is essential to the success of Digital India. Unfortunately, the Digital India plans that we have heard so far don’t make this explicitly clear.

The Internet was never meant to be monetised. Do you think that private players are eating into a public good that is absolutely necessary for development?
I have never heard that statement before. The Internet, after its early history, has been completely built using private capital. The public Internet has always been monetised. Collectively, the individual entrepreneurs and enterprises that build and run the components of the Internet have created a common public good – which is the globally interconnected network. But the motivation for private capital behind maintaining and building their corner or component of this network has also been profit maximisation.

What has contributed to the growing need to regulate and administer the Internet?
Technical advancements and business model innovations have resulted in both benefits and harms and therefore there could be a rationale for regulation. But more regulation per se is not a virtue and does not serve the interest of citizens and consumers. Expanding the regulatory scope of government infinitely will only result in failure, given the limited capacity and resources of the State. Therefore, whenever the State enters a new area of regulation it should ideally stop regulating in another area. In other words, there is no clear case that the regulation of the Internet is needed to keep growing exponentially – as evolving technologies may require specific regulation – if the resultant harms cannot be addressed using existing law. In most cases, traditional law is sufficient to deal with crimes and offences online.

This story is from the print issue of Hardnews: August 2015

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/hardnewsmedia-august-10-2015-abeer-kapoor-net-neutrality-india-is-a-keybattle-ground

Net nanny meets muscular law

Admin — 2018-10-02T05:48:32Z

India’s new human-trafficking bill could criminalise sex workers and curtail free speech.

The article by Laxmi Murthy was published in Himal South Asian on September 26, 2018.

When conservative morality is armed with the law and prejudice is given legal validity, the state is transformed into a wet nurse cum security guard. The Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill 2018, passed on 26 July in the lower house of the Indian Parliament, represents a growing trend of increased state surveillance and control, and a carceral approach to dealing with non-compliance with overbroad and vague laws laced with prudery.

Trafficking in persons, as defined by the United Nations, is “the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons” by coercion, deception or the abuse of power or position for the purpose of exploitation. Human trafficking is considered to be a form of modern-day slavery and is outlawed in most countries.

Following the ratification of the United Nations Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others in 1949, India enacted the Suppression of Immoral Traffic in Women and Girls Act 1956. However, nowhere was trafficking clearly defined in the law. The acronym of this law, SITA, seemingly deliberately modelled after Sita, the chaste wife of Rama from the epic Ramayana, reinforced the moralism already codified into law. Moving from suppression to prevention of ‘immoral’ trafficking took three decades, but the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act (ITPA), as the act was renamed in 1986, continued to prioritise morality over human rights, focusing its attention on raiding brothels and “rescuing and rehabilitating” sex workers, whether or not they wanted such intervention. Though sex work is not illegal per se in India – with some notable exceptions with respect to soliciting in public places – the ITPA views consensual adult sex work as a misnomer and approaches all women in sex work as victims in need of rescue. This ultimately criminalises even consenting adult sex workers by treating solicitation, brothel ownership and procurement as criminal activity.

Unfortunately, the 2018 trafficking bill has been drafted with this very mindset, and goes on to widen the scope to cover “aggravated” forms of trafficking, including trafficking for the purpose of forced labour, begging, trafficking by administering chemical substance or hormones for early sexual maturity among other things. It also includes in its ambit trafficking for the purpose of surrogacy, at a time when questions around commercial surrogacy and consent of surrogates have yet to be settled in Indian law.

The bill also aims to unify existing criminal law provisions on trafficking. The definition of trafficking in the Indian law is drawn primarily from Section 370 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), which includes ‘any act’ of physical exploitation, sexual exploitation, slavery or practices similar to slavery and servitude. Trafficking under this bill also includes begging and domestic work. However, critics of the bill, including a collective of sex-worker-rights groups and organisations working with bonded labour, children and adolescents under the banner of the Coalition for an Inclusive Approach on the Trafficking Bill, say that the bill, with its criminalised approach, will further stigmatise sex workers, transgender persons and beggars. The supposed ‘victims’ of trafficking would, therefore, be forcibly rescued, rehabilitated and repatriated, and denied their chosen residence as well as their means of livelihood. The elaborate anti-trafficking bureaucracy to be set up at district, state and national levels seems unwieldy and without representation of the communities it purports to protect.

Cross-purposes

The anti-trafficking bill embodies a constitutional conundrum: in attempting to fulfil the mandate under Article 23 of the Constitution – to protect persons from exploitation inherent in human trafficking – it can potentially violate fundamental freedoms, in particular, the freedom of speech and expression, a core protection guaranteed by Article 19.

According to Section 39 (2) of the bill, “Whoever solicits or publicises electronically, taking or distributing obscene photographs or videos or providing materials or soliciting or guiding tourists or using agents or any other form which may lead to the trafficking of a person shall be punished (emphasis added)”.

This provision, while intending to criminalise online soliciting, casts a wide net and prescribes penalties – rigorous imprisonment for a term of five to ten years and a fine between INR 50,000 (USD 700) and INR 100,000 (USD 1400) – for vaguely defined acts which may lead to trafficking. It is not necessary, as per this provision, to prove a direct causal link between these acts – such as distributing obscene photographs or providing materials – and the actual crime of trafficking. Such a broad brush is highly problematic and violates well-established tenets of criminal jurisprudence which require criminal intention (mens rea) along with the actual criminal act (actus reus). That is, a criminal act must be accompanied by a criminal intention. Without any burden to prove a causal link, anything deemed to potentially lead to trafficking can be proscribed – for example, any artistic work, academic publication or cinematic representation.

Sexually explicit content – text, audio and visual – has evoked deeply contentious opinions right from the time of the Kamasutra and the erotic sculptures of the Khajuraho temples. There is no one single position on pornography or obscenity among feminists, despite their shared concern about enhancing women’s rights and stopping exploitation. On the one hand, American feminist Robin Morgan’s famous pronouncement back in 1974, that pornography is the theory and rape is the practice, implying that pornography was directly responsible for violence and sexual abuse of women, influenced early feminists the world over, and continues to hold sway among sections of women’s rights advocates. However, while images undoubtedly impact on the human psyche, the causal links between pornography and rape are not established firmly enough to warrant censorship and bans. On the other hand, sex-positive feminists who celebrate varied expressions of sexual desire, especially female sexuality, advocates of feminist pornography (which is not seen as a contradiction in terms), adult entertainers and sex workers have practiced and theorised sexual desire and its many manifestations in ways that are undergirded by consent, respect, agency and autonomy, but not necessarily confined to contemporary social mores. Conversations around sexuality and desire have moved beyond criminalisation of what is considered deviant, but echoes of these conversations do not seem to have been heard in the corridors of the Parliament.

With the prevalent moral disapproval of pornography and adult entertainment, the phrase “taking or distributing obscene photographs or videos or providing materials” can easily be misinterpreted as leading to trafficking. The word ‘obscene’ is itself too subjective and culturally loaded a term to withstand rigorous legal scrutiny. It is a no-brainer that deciding what is aesthetically pleasing erotica and what is unacceptable pornography is in the eye of the beholder and is, therefore, subjective. Where there is no requirement to prove intention, or mens rea, any image or video deemed to be obscene can be censored. This could bring into its ambit online material, articles, literature, magazines as well as artists and their work, and consenting adult sexual interactions in the digital space including adult dating apps like Tinder or OkCupid.

It was only as recently as 2014 that India’s Supreme Court jettisoned the archaic Hicklin Test, which was developed in an 1868 case in England to determine whether specific material could “deprave and corrupt those whose minds are open to such influences”. This outdated standard was applied, for instance, in the landmark case of Udeshi v State of Maharashtra in 1964 to uphold the ban on the D H Lawrence classic Lady Chatterley’s Lover and to convict Ranjit Udeshi, a bookseller, under Section 292 of the IPC for distributing “obscene” material.

Half a century on, in 2014, Anand Bazaar Patrika, publishers of Sportsworld, a magazine which reprinted a nude photograph of tennis champion Boris Becker and his fiancée, won the case in the apex court which rejected the Hicklin Test. However, the court adopted a ‘community standards’ test derived from the 1957 Roth v United States case that determined what was obscene and was, therefore, unprotected by the First Amendment to the American Constitution that protects freedom of speech. The ‘community standards’ test has itself been challenged for its vagueness, since what is considered to have social importance is itself variable. In addition, the Supreme Court in the Sportsworld case allowed the nude photograph because, in the court’s view, it did not have “a tendency to arouse feeling or reveal an overt sexual desire”. The nude photograph of a white-skinned Becker with his dark-skinned fiancée was deemed to be in the public interest, as its intention was to cast a spotlight on racism and apartheid. However, the justification that the photo did not arouse sexual desire and was, therefore, acceptable, is both highly subjective and problematic in its criminalisation of sexual desire, in that it allows – without any evidence whatsoever – the dangerous possibility of nudity having a causal effect on violence.

Stormy seas and safe harbours

The Trafficking Bill 2018 in its “offences related to media” chapter, continues in its inexorable march towards criminalisation on the basis of vague definitions. According to Section 36, a person is said to be engaged in trafficking of person even if that person “advertises, publishes, prints, broadcasts or distributes, or causes the advertisement, publication, printing or broadcast or distribution by any means, including the use of information technology or any brochure, flyer or any propaganda material that promotes trafficking of person or exploitation of a trafficked person in any manner.”

However, since “promoting trafficking or exploitation” has not been clearly defined, it makes room for different interpretations of liability. There is little in this provision that attempts to impose a clear, rigorous standard of evidence that could demonstrate direct cause. The Bengaluru-based non-profit Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) cautions that, under this clause, the likelihood of authors of adult material, videographers, filmmakers and internet sites being charged with promoting trafficking or exploitation is quite high, since the clause might build a legal link between hosting or producing pornography and trafficking.

Clamping down on internet freedom on the basis of obscenity is not new. In July 2015, the government banned 857 websites that it considered pornographic. This followed the Kamlesh Vaswani case in the Supreme Court where the then chief justice of India expressed his inability to order a ban as it would go against the right to personal liberty guaranteed in Article 21 of the Constitution. In their submission challenging the ban, and underlining the subjectivity in viewing and interpreting content, the Internet Service Providers Association of India (ISPAI) said, “one man’s pornography is another man’s high art”, making it impossible for them to ban any sites. The ISPs were later told that they should ban only sites showing child pornography, but they submitted that they neither created content nor owned it and that it was not possible for them to view content before hosting it. And therein lies one of the most controversial features of the trafficking bill.

The most pernicious provision of the bill, Section 41 (2), displays a complete lack of understanding of the manner in which the digital space functions. The section penalises anyone who “distributes, or sells or stores, in any form in any electronic or printed form showing incidence of sexual exploitation, sexual assault, or rape for the purpose of exploitation or for coercion of the victim or his family members, or for unlawful gain.”

As the CIS critique of the bill points out, digital infrastructure requires third party intermediaries to handle information during transmission, storage or display. As it is not always desirable or even practically possible to verify the legality of every bit of data that gets transferred or stored by the intermediary, the CIS points out, the law provides ‘safe harbours’ to protect intermediaries from liability, ensuring that entities that act as architectural requirements and intermediary platforms are able to operate smoothly and without fear. It must be noted that users who upload and initiate transfer of information online, are not always the same parties who are directly involved in transmission of content.

In India, immunity from liability or a ‘safe harbour’ for intermediaries involved with transmission or temporary storage of content is currently provided by Section 79 of the Information Technology Act 2000 (IT Act), on condition that they: (i) act as a mere ‘conduit’ and do not initiate the transmission, select the receiver of the transmission, or select or modify the information contained in the transmission and (ii) exercise due diligence, which has been defined under the law. The provision for safe harbours has also been tested in court, notably in the case of the virtual market Baazee.com (later acquired by eBay), which had hosted an advertisement for an ‘obscene’ video for two days before it was taken down. The court held that the IT Act would prevail over the IPC, and the managers could not be held liable for the content of the advertisement.

With Section 59 of the proposed trafficking bill set to override existing legislation, the provision of safe harbours under the IT Act will be in jeopardy. Notably, this move to prosecute internet intermediaries is in keeping with a worldwide trend. In April 2018, the United States President Donald Trump signed into law two controversial pieces of legislation aimed to tackle human trafficking online, which have grave implications for free speech. The US Congress bill, the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA), and the Senate bill, the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA), have been welcomed by some as a victory for victims of sex trafficking. Alarmingly, however, the bills, better known by their acronyms FOSTA-SESTA, create an exception to the safe harbour rule, ie Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act (CDA). This provision, which is regarded as a landmark protection, says “no provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.” For over two decades, in the spirit of actualising the immense potential of the digital space to share information, ideas and opinions, this section has provided immunity for intermediaries, allowing users to freely generate content without making platforms and ISPs accountable for such content.

Under FOSTA-SESTA, however, websites are liable to be penalised for advertisements promoting consensual adult sex work, dating or escort services (such as Backpage.com or Craigslist) which could be deemed to promote trafficking. Sex-worker-rights activists in the US posit that such an unwarranted clampdown on these avenues through which adult sex workers could safely screen clients and avoid potentially dangerous situations, is putting them at risk.

Despite the protests against the impact of FOSTA-SESTA on the internet and free expression, parliamentarians in the United Kingdom seem set to follow a similar regulatory route. An All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Prostitution and the Global Sex Trade in July 2018 called for a ban on “prostitution websites”, by which they mean virtual advertising sites such as Vivastreet and Adultwork which host adult advertisements. Anticipating the same fallout as in the US, Amnesty UK tweeted, “Taking down these platforms will push sex workers deeper underground exposing them to greater risks of violence, exploitation and trafficking.”

Beyond criminalisation

According to Interpol, trafficking in human beings is a multi-billion-dollar international criminal industry, which is usually carried out for forced labour, sexual exploitation or for harvesting of tissue, cells and organs. Despite this recognition of the different motives for trafficking, the crime has largely been linked – in the popular imagination, media and, unfortunately, even law enforcement – to sexual exploitation. The thrust of anti-trafficking efforts in India, post-Independence, set the stage for decades of human-rights violations in the name of anti-trafficking, using an ineffective law that penalised victims more than traffickers. The proposed bill, with its ill-conceived criminalised regime, is likely to do more harm than good, and give rise to a repressive regime that is not in the interests of marginalised populations most vulnerable to traffickers. Not only is the bill unlikely to make any dent in the organised trafficking networks, but the fallout of its provisions policing the internet is also likely to hamper freedom of expression and consensual, adult sexual activity mediated through the digital space.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/himal-south-asian-laxmi-murthy-net-nanny-meets-muscular-law

Net Freedom Campaign Loses its Way

sunil — 2014-05-27T11:07:04Z

A recent global meet was a victory for governments and the private sector over civil society interests.

The article was published in the Hindu Businessline on May 10, 2014.

One word to describe NetMundial: Disappointing! Why? Because despite the promise, human rights on the Internet are still insufficiently protected. Snowden’s revelations starting last June threw the global Internet governance processes into crisis.

Things came to a head in October, when Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff, horrified to learn that she was under NSA surveillance for economic reasons, called for the organisation of a global conference called NetMundial to accelerate Internet governance reform.

The NetMundial was held in São Paulo on April 23-24 this year. The result was a statement described as “the non-binding outcome of a bottom-up, open, and participatory process involving … governments, private sector, civil society, technical community, and academia from around the world.” In other words — it is international soft law with no enforcement mechanisms.

The statement emerges from “broad consensus”, meaning governments such as India, Cuba and Russia and civil society representatives expressed deep dissatisfaction at the closing plenary. Unlike an international binding law, only time will tell whether each member of the different stakeholder groups will regulate itself.

Again, not easy, because the outcome document does not specifically prescribe what each stakeholder can or cannot do — it only says what internet governance (IG) should or should not be. And finally, there’s no global consensus yet on the scope of IG. The substantive consensus was disappointing in four important ways:

Mass surveillance : Civil society was hoping that the statement would make mass surveillance illegal. After all, global violation of the right to privacy by the US was the raison d'être of the conference.

Instead, the statement legitimised “mass surveillance, interception and collection” as long as it was done in compliance with international human rights law. This was clearly the most disastrous outcome.

Access to knowledge: The conference was not supposed to expand intellectual property rights (IPR) or enforcement of these rights. After all, a multilateral forum, WIPO, was meant to address these concerns. But in the days before the conference the rights-holders lobby went into overdrive and civil society was caught unprepared.

The end result — “freedom of information and access to information” or right to information in India was qualified “with rights of authors and creators”. The right to information laws across the world, including in India, contains almost a dozen exemptions, including IPR. The only thing to be grateful for is that this limitation did not find its way into the language for freedom of expression.

Intermediary liability: The language that limits liability for intermediaries basically provides for a private censorship regime without judicial oversight, and without explicit language protecting the rights to freedom of expression and privacy. Even though the private sector chants Hillary Clinton's Internet freedom mantra — they only care for their own bottomlines.

Net neutrality: Even though there was little global consensus, some optimistic sections of civil society were hoping that domestic best practice on network neutrality in Brazil’s Internet Bill of Right — also known as Marco Civil, that was signed into law during the inaugural ceremony of NetMundial — would make it to the statement. Unfortunately, this did not happen.

For almost a decade since the debate between the multi-stakeholder and multilateral model started, the multi-stakeholder model had produced absolutely nothing outside ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, a non-profit body), its technical fraternity and the standard-setting bodies.

The multi-stakeholder model is governance with the participation (and consent — depending on who you ask) of those stakeholders who are governed. In contrast, in the multilateral system, participation is limited to nation-states.

Civil society divisions

The inability of multi-stakeholderism to deliver also resulted in the fragmentation of global civil society regulars at Internet Governance Forums.

But in the run-up to NetMundial more divisions began to appear. If we ignore nuances — we could divide them into three groups. One, the ‘outsiders’ who are best exemplified by Jérémie Zimmermann of the La Quadrature du Net. Jérémie ran an online campaign, organised a protest during the conference and did everything he could to prevent NetMundial from being sanctified by civil society consensus.

Two, the ‘process geeks’ — for these individuals and organisations process was more important than principles. Most of them were as deeply invested in the multi-stakeholder model as ICANN and the US government and some who have been riding the ICANN gravy train for years.

Even worse, some were suspected of being astroturfers bootstrapped by the private sector and the technical community. None of them were willing to rock the boat. For the ‘process geeks’, seeing politicians and bureaucrats queue up like civil society to speak at the mike was the crowning achievement.

Three, the ‘principles geeks’ perhaps best exemplified by the Just Net Coalition who privileged principles over process. Divisions were also beginning to sharpen within the private sector. For example, Neville Roy Singham, CEO of Thoughtworks, agreed more with civil society than he did with other members of the private sector in his interventions.

In short, the ‘outsiders’ couldn't care less about the outcome and will do everything to discredit it, the ‘process geeks’ stood in ovation when the outcome document was read at the closing plenary and the ‘principles geeks’ returned devastated.

For the multi-stakeholder model to survive it must advance democratic values, not undermine them.

This will only happen if there is greater transparency and accountability. Individuals, organisations and consortia that participate in Internet governance processes need to disclose lists of donors including those that sponsor travel to these meetings.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/the-hindu-business-line-may-10-2014-sunil-abraham-net-freedom-campaign-loses-its-way

NCAER Parallel Imports Report

praskrishna — 2014-04-01T10:39:46Z

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/ncaer-parallel-imports-report.pdf

National workshop on Web Accessibility - Thiruvananthapuram (Report)

radha — 2011-08-17T08:45:16Z

The third National Workshop on Web Accessibility for Web developers was organised by CIS at Thiruvananthapuram in collaboration with SPACE.

(CIS) and Society for Promotion of Alternative Computing and Employment (SPACE) organized a workshop on web accessibility for web developers from the public and private sector on September 25 to 26, 2009. The workshop took place at Christ Nagar International School, Kowdiar, Thiruvananthapuram.

About the Host Organizations

The Centre for Internet and Society
The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) is a Bangalore based non-profit, bringing together a team of practitioners, theoreticians, researchers and artists to work on the emerging field of Internet and Society in order to critically engage with concerns of digital pluralism, public accountability and pedagogic practices, with particular emphasis on South-South dialogues and exchange. We focus on areas such as Anonymity/Privacy, Censorship, Surveillance, Free and Open Source Software, Open Standards, Open Access, Family, Sexual practices, Addiction, Intellectual Property Rights and Trade, Piracy, ICT4D, Digital and Participation Divide and Digital Communities and Movements.

Society For Promotion of Alternative Computing and Employment
Society For Promotion of Alternative Computing and Employment (SPACE) is a registered society that has members from academia, the IT industry, professional societies such as IEEE and Computer Society of India, and the IT Administration of the Government of Kerala. The vision of SPACE is to promote the use of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) in academics, governance, corporate and individual use, and to support the use FOSS for employment generation in Kerala. The primary thrust are of the intervention are:

Promote the use of FOSS in the public, private, and governmental sectors as well as for personal/home use
Develop a model for FOSS- based employment generation that is appropriate to Kerala's context, by identifying appropriate business opportunities and providing support services including training and micro business incubation
Carry out R & D activities for the development of essential prototypes that bridge existing gaps in software, so as to enable widespread use of FLOSS
Ensure that Kerala is able to develop sufficient numbers of high-quality human resources in the FLOSS domain

Kerala State IT Mission

Kerala State Information Technology Mission (KSITM) is a Society registered under the Travancore Cochin Literary Scientific & Charitable Societies Registration Act. It is an autonomous nodal IT implementation agency for Department of Information Technology, Government of Kerala which provides managerial support to various initiatives of the Department.

About the Resource Persons

Rahul Gonsalves
Rahul has been building accessible websites since 2005 (sample work at http://rahulgonsalves.com/projects/ [1] ). He has been activiely involved in promoting web and accessibility standards. He spoke at the first international accessibility and technology conference in India, Techshare 2008, where he made out a case for accessibility and conducted a workshop on retrofitting accessibility to existing websites, a concern for most large institutions with an existing online presence (slides available at http://www.barrierbreak.com/events-conference/techshare_presentations200... [2])

In September 2008, he presented a paper examining ways in which People with various impairments - both physical and mental - engage with online content, and demonstrated practical ways in which authors can make online content accessible at the National Conference on ICT for Differently Abled People. He is a supporter of the push for having a national policy for governing electronic accessibility in India.

Srinivasu Chakravartula
Srinivasu Chakravarthula - graduated in Computer Science and is certified in 'assistive technologies'. He started his career as Head of the Braille Production Unit at National Association for the Blind, Bangalore. He then moved on and taught Computer Science at the Manik Public School, Bidar and also set up the Computer Training Centre at Hyderabad and Maniknagar, Bidar.

In the year 2005, he began to specialize in accessibility and started working for Net Systems Informatics and its subsidiary - BarrierBreak Technologies, Mumbai. During his stint at Net Systems, he was instrumental in setting up an accessibility process, imparting accessibility training to Corporates, creating awareness about accessibility and assistive technologies. Srinivasu played an innovative role in organizing Techshare India 2008 - India's 1st Accessibility and Assistive Technologies Conference and Exhibition. He was also Program Coordinator for Magazine, a3 that talked about Ability, Accessibility and Adaptability.

Srinivasu is currently working for Yahoo! India as Accessibility Manager and is responsible to lead and evangelize accessibility and its initiatives across Yahoo! India and South East Asia. He is also a member of the core committee for Yahoo! Employee Foundation India (YEFI). Srinivasu is associated with the social sector through the National Association for the Blind, India; Enable India, Shri Manik Prabhu Sikshan Samiti and Success World. His hobbies include blogging, tweeting, listening to classical music, playing chess and swimming.

Schedule of the Workshop

Day I

Introductory Session

Disability - 5 major types
The W3C and the WCAG
How people with disabilities use computers

Group Exercise/Discussion

Split participants into small groups and give them questions/problems to talk about and solve
Example: If your friend is deaf, how do you make sure that she/he understands what a video is about? OR How does someone who can't see or hear answer/check their email? OR X lost his hands in a car accident. How does he do a Google search?

Session 1 - Building an Accessible Website

Laying Accessible Foundations
Table-less layouts
Well-structured markup
Valid Code

Lecture/Demonstration of Accessibility Features under GNU/Linux by Arky

Lecture/Demonstration of NVDA Screen Reader

Lunch

Session 2 - Building an Accessible Website

Removing Barriers
Guideline 1 - Perception
Non-text content
Audio/Visual content
Adaptability
Contrast

Group Exercise: Guideline 1 - Translate a offline newspaper into an online one, and ensure that structure and information are retained when the content is adapted.

Wrap Session - Feedback and Clarifications

Day II

Lecture/Demonstration of ARIA features on selected websites

Session 3 - Guideline 2

Operable
Keyboard Access
Enough Time
Seizures
Navigable

LUNCH

Session 4 - Guideline 3 and 4

Understandable
Natural Language
Predictable
Input Assistance
Robust
Compatible

Session 5 - Accessibility Testing

Automated Testing + Tools
Manual Testing

Wrap Session - Feedback and Clarifications

Participants List

1. Mr. Vibeesh P - Team Leader, Rainconcert

2. Mr. Sunil S - Computer Programmer, ANERT

3. Mr. Vineet Pratap - Parallel Programmer, NIIST

4. Mr. Binsun N T - Software Engineer, Keltron

5. Mr. M.L. Antony - Manager (Software/Web Services), Keltron

6. Mr. Rojilal M. L - Programmer, KSEB

7. Ms. Dhanya Balakrishnan - Graduate Apprentice, Kerala State IT Mission

8. Ms. Indu Reghunath - Developer, SPACE

9. Mr. Jithin Babu B - Web Programmer, Freelance

10. Mr. Hareesh Mohan - Developer, SPACE

11. Mr. Sujith Sureshan - Developer, SPACE

12. Mr. Vinu C R - Web Programmer, IT@School

13. Mr. Cherian P Thomas - Programmer, KSEB

14. Mr. B Vijayakumar - Programmer, KSEB

15. Mr. Sunil Kumar - Governement Employee, Kerala Khadi and Village Industries Board

16. Mr. Anil Kumar - Akshaya, PA-MIS

17. Mr. Shanavas Khan - Programmer, Freelance

18. Ms. Shatti Raj - Scientist 'C', National Informatics Center

19. Ms. Rameena M - Developer, SPACE

20. Ms. Gita Brajesh - PSA, National Informatics Center

21. Ms. Indusekhar M S - System Analyst, National Informatics Center

22. Ms. Somi P Thomas - Scientist 'B', National Informatics Center

23. Ms. Nissy George - System Analyst, National Informatics Center

24. Ms. Susy M - Software Development, National Informatics Center

25. Ms. Jisy V K - Technical Apprentice, Kerala State IT Mission

26. Ms. Sandhya Devi T - Project Associate, IT@School

27. Ms. Saritha D R - Project Associate Executive, IT@School

28. Mr. Shaik Mohamed - System Analyst, National Informatics Center

29. Mr. Shibin Shah K J - Student, RSCS

30. Mr. Aneesh Bhadran - Student. RIT

31. Mr. Thomas K S - Assistant Manager, Camputec

32. Mr. Anil S - Member, SDS

33. Mr. John Panicker - Website Designer

34. Ms. Teenamol L - Information Kerala Mission

35. Mr. Shine A R - Information Kerala Mission

36. Mr. Jayahari K V

37. Mr. Naveen P L

38. Mr. Jijo Mathew

39. Mr. Antony Rodrugues

40. Mr. Satheeh S

41. Mr. Sajeevan C - Student, INSIGHT

Feedback

Session I

Title: Building an Accessible Website

Topics Covered: Laying Accessible Foundations, Table-less layouts, Well-structured markup, Valid Code

Content

	Excellent	Good	Need Improvement	Not Applicable
Covered Useful Materials	11	12	0	1
Practical to my needs and interest	9	11	3	1
Well Organized	12	9	1	2
Presented at the right level	14	9	0	1
Use Visual Aids	12	10	0	2

Presentation

	Excellent	Good	Need Improvement	Not Applicable
Instructor's Knowledge	20	3	0	1
Instructor's Presentation Style	16	7	0	1
Instructor Covered Materials Clearly	12	11	0	1
Instructor Responded Well to questions	18	5	0	1

Title: Lecture/Demonstration of Accessibility Features under GNU/Linux by Arky

Content

	Excellent	Good	Need Improvement	Not Applicable
Covered Useful Materials	12	8	1	3
Practical to my needs and interest	7	13	2	2
Well Organized	12	10	0	2
Presented at the right level	11	11	0	2
Use Visual Aids	9	11	1	3

Presentation

	Excellent	Good	Need Improvement	Not Applicable
Instructor's Knowledge	13	10	0	1
Instructor's Presentation Style	9	14	0	1
Instructor Covered Materials Clearly	9	14	0	1
Instructor Responded Well to questions	13	10	0	1

Title : Lecture/Demonstration of NVDA Screen Reader

Content

	Excellent	Good	Need Improvement	Not Applicable
Covered Useful Materials	7	14	1	2
Practical to my needs and interest	7	10	3	4
Well Organized	8	11	2	3
Presented at the right level	8	10	3	3
Use Visual Aids	7	12	3	2

Presentation

	Excellent	Good	Need Improvement	Not Applicable
Instructor's Knowledge	10	12	0	2
Instructor's Presentation Style	9	11	1	3
Instructor Covered Materials Clearly	7	14	1	2
Instructor Responded Well to questions	11	10	0	3

Session II

Title : Building an Accessible Website

Topics Covered : Removing Barriers, Guideline 1 - Perception, Non-text content, Audio/Visual content, Adaptability, Contrast

Content

	Excellent	Good	Need Improvement	Not Applicable
Covered Useful Materials	12	10	1	1
Practical to my needs and interest	11	11	1	1
Well Organized	12	9	2	1
Presented at the right level	15	8	0	1
Use Visual Aids	12	10	1	1

Presentation

	Excellent	Good	Need Improvement	Not Applicable
Instructor's Knowledge	15	7	0	2
Instructor's Presentation Style	11	11	0	2
Instructor Covered Materials Clearly	11	11	0	2
Instructor Responded Well to questions	13	9	0	2

Session III

Title :Guideline 2

Topics Covered: Operable, Keyboard Access, Enough Time, Seizures, Navigable

Content

	Excellent	Good	Need Improvement	Not Applicable
Covered Useful Materials	11	10	0	3
Practical to my needs and interest	10	11	0	3
Well Organized	9	12	0	3
Presented at the right level	8	12	1	3
Use Visual Aids	9	11	1	3

Presentation

	Excellent	Good	Need Improvement	Not Applicable
Instructor's Knowledge	12	9	0	3
Instructor's Presentation Style	10	11	0	3
Instructor Covered Materials Clearly	9	11	1	3
Instructor Responded Well to questions	11	10	0	3

Session IV

Title : Guideline 3 and 4

Topics Covered : Understandable, Natural Language, Predictable, Input Assistance, Robust, Compatible

Content

	Excellent	Good	Need Improvement	Not Applicable
Covered Useful Materials	10	11	2	1
Practical to my needs and interest	9	13	0	2
Well Organized	12	11	0	1
Presented at the right level	14	8	0	2
Use Visual Aids	12	10	1	1

Presentation

	Excellent	Good	Need Improvement	Not Applicable
Instructor's Knowledge	13	8	0	3
Instructor's Presentation Style	11	10	0	3
Instructor Covered Materials Clearly	12	9	0	3
Instructor Responded Well to questions	13	8	0	3

Session V

Title :Accessibility Testing

Topics Covered: Automated Testing + Tools, Manual Testing

Content

	Excellent	Good	Need Improvement	Not Applicable
Covered Useful Materials	15	9	0	0
Practical to my needs and interest	14	9	1	0
Well Organized	13	11	0	0
Presented at the right level	13	11	0	0
Use Visual Aids	14	9	1	0

Presentation

	Excellent	Good	Need Improvement	Not Applicable
Instructor's Knowledge	17	7	0	3
Instructor's Presentation Style	14	10	0	3
Instructor Covered Materials Clearly	14	9	0	1
Instructor Responded Well to questions	16	7	1	3

Workshop Organizers

Ms Nirmita Narsimhan (Programme Manager)
The Centre for Internet and Society
No. D2, 3rd Floor, Sheriff Chambers
14, Cunningham Road, Bangalore,
Karnataka 560052,
India

Phone: (+91)-080-4092-6283‎
Fax: (+91)-080-4114-8130
Email: nirmita@cis-india.org

Mr. Thomas Abraham (Training Coordinator)
Society for Promotion of Alternative Computing and Employment
C-11, Elankom Gardens,
Vellayambalam, Thiruvananthapuram
Kerala, India

Mobile: +91 94964 13317 Office Phone: +91 47123 18997
Email: tomuhs@gmail.com, contact@space-kerala.org

Consolidated Expenses of Web Accessibility Workshop, Trivandrum

Budget Head		Amount (Rs.)

Rent of lab and set up		15200
Accomodation		4963
Stationery		10285
Communication		507
Food		7535
Travel		6235
Coordination		10000
Total		54725

Please click here for the complete report.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/workshop-thiruvananthapuram-report