Is personal data ‘mine’ or there to be ‘mined’ – IGF workshop

I had the pleasure of chairing a workshop at the 2016 Internet Governance Forum in Guadalajara, Mexico on behalf of the Insafe network. The Internet Governance Forum (IGF) is mandated by the United Nations and is a multi-stakeholder forum for policy dialogue on issues of Internet governance. The workshop I chaired focused on the extent of the use of personal data by organisations and how this contrasts to how users perceive its use. The idea for the workshop was initiated by the incoming European General Data Protection Regulation and how this may help to address the issue.

The workshop was fantastically well attended with around 230 people attending in a room that could seat 200. 

Focusing on our insatiable appetite for free mobile apps, the workshop explored the regulatory and legislative frameworks that exist particularly in Europe and the US to manage and protect the use of personal data.  The workshop heard from 8 fantastic panellists looking at three particular areas.

John Carr OBE, Professor Sonia Livingstone OBE and Auke Pals (representing Youth@IGF ) kicked the session off by providing an analysis of the incoming EU General Data Protection Regulation, due to be active in May 2018, including the obligations and expectations it introduces to providers.

Turning the attention across the Atlantic, Larry Magid, Professor Kathryn Montgomery and Marsali Hancock compared the similar controversies generated in the United States during the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) deliberations in the 1990s.

Finally Ana Neves from the Portuguese Safer Internet Centre, and Louise Marie Hurel offered a balance with more global perspective.

The session then extended the opportunity with questions from the floor before concluding at 12:45 with a brief summary together with a call to action to participate in Safer Internet Day 2017.