The 2014 CLSR-LSPI Lisbon seminar on ‘the digital citizen’ – Presented at the 9th International Conference on Legal, Security and Privacy Issues in IT Law (LSPI) 15–17 October 2014, Vieira De Almeida & Associados, Lisbon, Portugal

Abstract

‘The Digital Citizen’ has become a buzzword in recent years as part of the social and economic agendas of many countries and as a key theme in the strategy for Europe 2020. In 2014, the Vice-President of the European Commission and Commissioner for the Digital Agenda, Neelie Kroes, described its emergence as “people with greater access to information, people empowered to shape the world around them. More able to both learn: and participate”.¹ Yet, while the benefits of this vision are clear, harnessing the opportunities on offer requires confronting significant challenges.

In seeking to explore what this empowering concept means for law and policy-makers today, this Seminar is intended to encourage reflection upon how increasing digitisation and hyper-connectivity affects our day-to-day interactions with those in power, as well as the security and privacy issues arising from them. For example, in many countries the development of new forms of digital identity management enables citizens to assert their identity electronically in order to access public services (such as online access to their medical data). However, these can only work optimally when supported by citizen-centric policy and legal frameworks that are technology-neutral, trust enhancing and mutually recognised across borders.

New data-driven and virtual relationships with governments also necessitate a reconsideration of the rights that digital citizen deserve. On the one hand, the ease with which increasing amounts of accessible personal data can be collected – overtly or covertly – and analysed by states about their citizens' raises concerns about lost privacy controls and substantial power imbalances (such as regarding storage and access rights to such data). On the other hand, massive improvements in accessing information permit opportunities for greater engagement with government by individuals, yet assume the rollout of better and faster internet connectivity for all citizens to participate. In turn, social media has demonstrated how ICT can facilitate collective citizen activism to pressure for societal change, alongside the power of sousveillance to act as a countervailing force to pervasive state monitoring.

Also ripe for discussion is the notion of reciprocal responsibilities between citizens and governments. In the physical space, for example, concerns are mounting over the implications of the advent of cheap wearable computers and drones. In the virtual domain, the borderless nature of the online world and its distributed control has connotations for a wider concept of networked citizenship with attendant rights. This led the creator of the Web – Sir Tim Berners-Lee – to call for a Bill of Rights (a ‘Magna Carta for the Web’) in 2014, the Web's 25th birthday, to protect its users. Citizen rights that already exist relevant to the online environment are scattered across various laws and are not always easy to understand. The roles of transnational institutions in fostering closer international cooperation on ICT policy, as well as strengthening confidence in privacy, consumer and data protection rights online, are also topics for discussion in this respect.

Questions for discussion include: What does digital citizenship mean today? What rights, obligations and responsibilities should be associated with digital citizenship? What types of legal solutions are fit for purpose to protect digital citizenship interests? What should be the role of public sectors in e-identity assurance schemes, such as regarding liability? Should e-identity management be regulated? How does digital citizenship relate to novel rights, such as a right to public-sector data and a right to be forgotten online, and how might these rights be enforced effectively? To what extent can law and policy support increase transparency and trust by citizens in the actions of their governments? How can privacy and security be guaranteed to citizens where automated technologies affect their rights and civil liberties? How are biometrics and location-tracking devices used by states in body surveillance changing the digital citizenship landscape? How can individuals be more empowered to control their personal data held by governments and give informed consent to its use? What are the global drivers of digital citizenship policies and international cooperation in rule making and standard setting, especially in relation to emerging sensor-embedded technologies that will change the lives of citizens dramatically in the future?