IGF Live Podcast - Internet for All, but Privacy for Me

Digital Rights Explored: Local Fights, Global Perspectives

As people get online, they are encouraged or even forced to share significant amounts of personal information. What happens when this data is collated? And what happens when this data gets into the wrong hands? This can have very real effects offline, putting individuals’ lives in danger.

Large corporations and government bodies, while digitising their services for more data-driven societies, violate also (whether deliberate or not) citizens' digital rights by surveilling them, criminalising citizens based on their (digital) data, and/or sharing their data and violating their right to privacy. In face of such a deep systemic digital rights violation, what can be done?

In this live recording of one of our podcast episodes of “Digital Rights Explored. Local Fights, Global Perspectives,” we talk about digital data collection by governments taking a wrong turn. Our expert from Myanmar, Annie Zaman, shares with us the situation from the ground where citizens face checkpoints where their digital devices are being checked by military, and they can be arrested for the slightest indications of "rebellion", like photos of protests, texts on social media etc. We hear from a young woman who had been arrested and faced serious human rights violations because she had photos on her phone of the protests. What can be done in closed societies and dictatorships- to enhance digital security?

Our second expert Osama Manzar explored the effects of intrusive digital ID systems, such as the Aadhar system in India. What can be done to make this ID system more privacy enhancing and inclusive? Shruti Trikanad shares the research results and recommendations of the research by the Center for Internet Society. But we will also bring a global expert on the topic of government surveillance and ID systems - Edin Omanovic - the advocacy director from Privacy International. Edin's work revolves around exposing and challenging abuses of power by governments and corporations. Our questions cover, but are not limited to: How can policy, spanning both privacy and education, help us to reduce this danger and protect our digital citizens? What kind of regulations need to be put in place to protect our rights, and what actions can regular citizens take in order to safeguard their personal information?
This episode was created by:
Host and editor: Alexandre Amaral
Producer: Ena Omerović
Co-producer: Osama Manzar & Annie Zaman
Consultants (partner Deutsche Welle Akademie): Hanna Hempel & Leah Winnett

This is a Podcast made by the Media and Information Literacy Expert Network (MILEN) with the support of Deutsche Welle Akademie (DW Akademie).

Contact us with questions, comments or your Stories on digital rights' violations at:
[email protected]