Sakharov Debate 2017: is online privacy a human right?

Join us for the seventh annual Sakharov Debate, organised jointly by the UCL European Institute and the Office of the European Parliament in the UK. This year, the debate will focus on the different facets of online anonymity - including transparency, privacy and security.
Friday 8 December, 11am-12:30pm

Speakers

• Dr Steven J. Murdoch, Security Researcher, Information Security Research Group at the Department of Computer Science, UCL
• Jean Lambert MEP, Member of the European Parliament (Greens) for London
• John Cooper QC, Barrister at 25 Bedford Row
• Geraldine de Bastion, Co-Founder, Konnektiv and Global Advisor Digital Policies at the Heinrich Boell Foundation

Moderator

• Martine Croxall, BBC News Presenter 

Is online privacy a human right?

This year's annual Sakharov Debate, co-hosted by the European Parliament UK Office and the UCL European Institute, will examine the human rights issues surrounding online privacy, looking at key areas such as hate speech and psychometric voter targeting during the Brexit campaigns, the European Court of Justice's judgment on UK government surveillance laws, and the recent revelations of the Paradise Papers.

As technology and social media continue to blur the boundaries between our public and private lives, the nature of digital privacy is now one of the most pressing matters of our time. Although the proliferation of digital technology has clearly brought about positive social effects, it also entails a new range of challenges to civil liberties that have yet to be adequately covered by policy or legislation. After all, in the digital context, privacy can be seen as a gateway to other human rights, including freedom of expression and freedom of assembly, as well as the rights to personal freedom and security.

This raises concerns about how far government, corporate interests and even individual citizens are encroaching on privacy. The increase in digitised information has led governments to invest in new surveillance technologies, enabling them to track citizens' movements and monitor communications. Similarly, commercially and politically motivated online advertising poses major questions about how sensitive personal information can and should be protected.

However, privacy can also be exploited to cover toxic or even criminal behaviour, including online harassment, political censorship, tax avoidance, or filtering access to information. Indeed, the rising number of leaks and investigations that seek to uncover unethical or illegal behaviour by governments, businesses or individuals needs to be examined in this context.

Panellists will therefore discuss the potential incompatibility of personal and political positions on privacy, exploring the current and future state of digital rights in the UK, the EU and beyond.

Biographies

Dr Steven J. Murdoch (@sjmurdoch) is a security research at University College London, where he is Royal Society University Research Fellow in the Information Security Research Group of the Department of Computer Science. He is also a bye-fellow of Christ's College, Security Architect at the VASCO Innovation Center, Cambridge, a member of the Tor Project, and a Fellow of the Institute of Engineering and Technology and the British Computer Society. Dr Murdoch blogs at www.benthamsgaze.org. 

Jean Lambert MEP (@GreenJeanMEP) Jean Lambert has been Green MEP for London since 1999. One of three Green MEPs in the UK, she is the party's spokesperson for migration. Jean is a member of the European Parliament Committees on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, as well as Employment and Social Affairs, as well as co-chair of the cross-party parliamentary intergroup on anti-racism and diversity, and the vice-chair of the intergroup on extreme poverty and human rights. An advocate of democracy and human rights, refugee rights, anti-discrimination and social inclusion, Jean has worked to promote digital rights and online privacy through EU-US agreements over data sharing and retention, and helped to enshrine net neutrality into EU law in 2014. In 2005, she was named Justice and Human Rights MEP of the Year.

John Cooper (@John_Cooper_QC) is QC at 25 Bedford Row and Visiting Professor of Law at Cardiff University. He is a Master of the Bench at Middle Temple, and in 2012 was listed in The Times as one of the 100 most influential lawyers in the UK.John was Chair of the International Steering Committee and Prosecutor at the Iran Tribunal in The Hague. He has also advised Police Forces, including the Metropolitan Police, on Data Protection, CCTV and Privacy, as well as advising the IT security company DataSec on Data Protection issues. A former Vice Chairman of the Bar Council Public Affairs Committee, John also writes regularly for a number of newspapers including The Times, Observer and the Daily Telegraph. Additionally, John is a Board Member of Prisoner of Conscience and the Citizenship Foundation.

Geraldine de Bastion (@geralbine) is the co-founder of Konnektiv, a Berlin-based agency consulting and conducting cooperation projects on information and communication technology. She is also the Global Advisor Digital Policies at the Heinrich Boell Foundation. Geraldine previously worked as a consultant for information and communication technology and new media for development in Sub-Saharan Africa. She is the founder of the Global Innovation Gathering, a network of grassroots innovators, social entrepreneurs, founders, and managers of makerspaces, hackerspaces, and innovation hubs. In addition she works with activists and bloggers around the world on digital rights issues. She holds a degree in political science from FU Berlin.

Register for the event here.

Find out more about the European Parliament's Sakharov Prize and about Andrei Sakharov here.