IGF 2019 WS #312 The Young Person’s Guide to Data Governance and Rights

Relevance to Theme: Data Governance is quickly becoming one of the largest Internet Governance issues in recent times. With the establishment of the GDPR in Europe and other similar regimes around the world, citizens are being granted data rights which were not available to them before. As a result, there is a need for citizens to be educated as to their data rights under various data regimes so that they can have control over their digital identity.

This session will focus in on how to achieve this within the youth demographic, with speakers explaining how to breakdown data rights in their respective countries and the best ways of communicating this to youth in their regions. This session will advance the theme of Data Governance by equipping participants to return to their regions and educate others about data protection and their data rights.

With a focus on the Asia-Pacific region, this session will help establish a baseline understanding of Data Governance in the fastest growing and developing regions in the world. With nations such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Australia, Singapore and the Japan implementing more complex and stringent data protection and Governance laws, it is important that there is knowledge of how to deal with this on a youth level. After all, the youth are the ones who will direct the policy direction of the Internet in the future, and as a result it is important that they are aware and knowledgeable about Data Governance in particular as it plays an ever increasing role to play in our lives.

So often, the focus when discussing data protection is on the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation and similar laws in developed countries such as Canada or Australia. This belies the fact that much of the world’s population, and Internet users, do not live in these countries and are not expressly covered by these laws. This is not to say that people in the global south, in developing and newly developed countries, are not covered however. In cases such as Indonesia, the Philippines and South Africa, there are data protection laws being implemented which get much less attention on the international stage than the GDPR. Yet these laws have the possibility of impacting many more Internet users than the GDPR. As a result, this session will aim to firstly highlight some of the data protection regimes in countries which are less commonly discussed, as well as equip participants to return to their own countries and similarly analyse their own Data Governance regimes.

While all the speakers and organizers are from the Asia Pacific region, they represent a broad spectrum of stakeholder groups, from civil society, academia and private sector experience. This ensures that the information shared is relevant to all stakeholder groups, irregardless of geographic or stakeholder origin.

Relevance to Internet Governance: The issue of data protection and rights is not a new issue in Internet Governance, and has been highlighted very often in various Internet Governance fora. Data protection is a necessary legal mechanism that ensures privacy, and hence instills the trust of Internet users. The Internet exists because we trust it. The moment this changes, the Internet will cease to be useful as part of the democratic population. As technology and the Internet evolves, so does people’s expectation on privacy and their data. In the past, issues on privacy used to only focus on governmental activities. However, today we are seeing that this issue is also affecting a number of other stakeholders, including businesses, the private sector as well as the civil society. Modern practices of privacy focuses on communication privacy; such as no surveillance of communication, and information privacy; for instance the handling of individual information.
This session will endeavour to help highlight the trust-driven nature of the internet by equipping participants with the skills and knowledge to navigate the increasingly complex world of data rights and governance.

The creation of data protection laws in states and organisations around the world has had a significant impact on Internet Governance. While this is not the first time that the actions of individual governments have touched on the overall Internet (consider the long standing issue of Internet piracy), it is certainly one which has increased visibility due to its impact on every Internet user. For example, with the European Union’s GDPR; while the regulation specifically creates data rights for European residents and citizens, the wide-ranging ambit of the law means that many of its effects can be felt by Internet users beyond just the EU as many Internet applications offer increased ability for users to govern their own data. Consequently, within Internet Governance there should be a push to inform users about these rights, and how to access them. This derives from Internet Governance role in promoting proper and secure use of the Internet - in this case ensuring that users have the ability to exercise proper control over their data.