IGF 2019 WS #178 Human-centric Digital Identities

Information

Session

Thematic Track:

Data Governance

Topic(s):

Data driven economy
Digital identity
Human Rights

Organizer 1: Intergovernmental Organization, Intergovernmental Organization

Michael Bültmann, Managing Director, HERE Technologies
Linda Bonyo, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, LawyersHub
Sebastian Hufnagel, Government Affairs Manager EMEA, Dell
Dirk Woywod, Chief Technology Officer, Verimi
Solana Larsen, Editor of the Internet Health Report, Mozilla

Format:

Panel - Auditorium - 90 Min

Session Structure

Welcome (10 min)	World Economic Forum moderator welcomes everybody and introduces the context and objectives of the workshop.
Panel (30 min)	The moderator facilitates a panel conversation focused on: How do you approach data and digital identity design in your ongoing activities? Share 1-2 good practices and policies that enhance individual-centricity of identity and data models. What roles can businesses, governments and innovators play in identity and data governance? How can the public and civil society be better involved?
Workshop (30 min)	Rotating group discussion on five governance topics The moderator invites onsite participants to split into five groups each focused a specific sub-theme and led by one of the panelists. Online participants can participate in any topic. Participants will spend 15 min on the topic and then rotate to another group. The objective per topic is to identify: "Lighthouse” initiatives demonstrating good governance Scalable, replicable best practices Break-out topics: Breakout topic # 1: Ensuring user agency and meaningful consent Breakout topic # 2: Mobilizing citizen, consumer and civil society engagement Breakout topic # 3: Fostering agile and collaborative policy development Breakout topic # 4 Advancing use cases with high consumer value Breakout topic # 5: Enabling collaboration across entities and sectors
Wrap-Up / Closing comments (15 min)	The moderator invites the breakout group leaders to share one main take-away and high-potential idea from their discussion. The moderator summarizes priorities for collaboration and opportunities for broader stakeholders to engage. The moderator thanks all participants and closes the session.

Policy Question(s):

How can we make inclusion, empowerment and agency of individuals a core design element of identity and data models?
What are high-value use cases that data and digital identity can enable for citizens and consumers, and how can we accelerate their implementation?
How must roles for governments, businesses and civil society evolve in an increasingly data-driven economy?

Expected Outcomes:

Broaden shared understanding of individual-centric principles on digital identity and data
Identify “lighthouse” activities and scalable, replicable best practices from around the world
Identify priority policy considerations that need multi-stakeholder dialogue and action

Relevance to Theme

Growing digital interactions are bringing personal identity data online at an unprecedented rate, creating both opportunities and vulnerabilities. Many governments and businesses are establishing digital identity programs and data models to improve delivery of public and private services to citizens and consumers. While these represent tremendous opportunities for individuals to gain value from the digital economy, inadequate policies and practices can lead to exclusion, discrimination and abuse of personal freedoms. What are individual-centric, scalable policies and practices on identity and data that are creating sustainable value to business, consumers and citizens?

Relevance to Internet Governance

Digital identity and related data governance is a core internet governance issue, as it determines who accesses the internet, how, and receives what services and opportunities. It determines how individuals and institutions are represented on the internet. It determines the level of trust between individuals and institutions on their interactions online. It requires the development and adoption of shared principles, guidance and regulations across governments, private sector and civil society.

Online Participation:

We will engage the audience beyond those in the room to crowd in good policy examples and practices on all break-out groups.

SDGs:

GOAL 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
GOAL 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
GOAL 10: Reduced Inequalities
GOAL 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
GOAL 17: Partnerships for the Goals

Reference Document

Report

1. Key Policy Questions and Expectations:

How can we make inclusion, empowerment and agency of individuals a core design element of identity and data models?
What are high-value use cases that data and digital identity can enable for citizens and consumers, and how can we accelerate their implementation?
How must roles for governments, businesses and civil society evolve in an increasingly data-driven economy?

Expected outcomes:

Broaden shared understanding of individual-centric principles on digital identity and data
Identify “lighthouse” activities and scalable, replicable best practices from around the world
Identify priority policy considerations that need multi-stakeholder dialogue and action

2. Discussion Areas:

There was agreement on:

Digital Identities as opportunity to enable high-potential use cases as well as risk to individual rights
Principles to be maintained in designing Digital Identity Solutions: Public involvement, Opt-In, Collaboration (you cannot solve identity alone), Standards / Interoperability, Security
No one-size fits all: e.g. top-down state-imposed identity versus collaborative approaches

3. Policy Recommendations or Suggestions for the Way Forward:

Policy recommendations relate to collaborative approaches and respecting privacy and control of individuals:

Economic: Define incentives and explain to users the benefits of identity [to be addressed in business fora and digital skills]
Social-cultural: Public consultations, Public-private involvement - to reach critical mass
Technical policy: Define and adopt common standards / technology exists to approach this [to be addressed by technical, vendor alliances, as well as ethical approaches to AI]
Overarching policy issues: Define frames for privacy and security before imposing digital identity scehemes.

4. Other Initiatives Addressing the Session Issues:

Examples addressing policy issues:

National ID Schemes giving agency to indiivduals over their data: Estonia
Collaboration of public-private sector: UK: Gov.Verify
Public engagement in designing solutions: Canada, Estonia, Australia
Technical authentication: FIDO Alliance

5. Making Progress for Tackled Issues:

Focus on standardization, harmonization, public engagement, critical-mass of coallitions to avoid monopolies e,g. of large private sector companies or of government surveillance

6. Estimated Participation:

Estimated participation: 60 participants, 50-50% gender diversity

7. Reflection to Gender Issues:

Digital Identities should not exaccerbate divisions.