MISCELLANEOUS

MISCELLANEOUS

DIGITAL RIGHTS

Digital rights are those that allow people to access, use, create and publish digital media, as well as access and use computers, other electronic devices and communications networks. Digital rights are merely an extension of the rights set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations as applied to the online world. It can be related to trolling, online threats and hate speech; it can address broader issues of equitable Internet access regardless of economic backgrounds and disabilities. European Commission, in a global first, proposed a set of digital rights and principles recently:

Digital Citizenship: Rights and Principles for Europeans

• People at the centre: Digital technologies should protect people’s rights, support democracy and ensure that all digital players act responsibly and safely. The EU promotes these values across the world.
• Freedom of choice: People should benefit from a fair online environment, be safe from illegal and harmful content and be empowered when they interact with new and evolving technologies like artificial intelligence.
• Safety and security: The digital environment should be safe and secure. All users, from childhood to old age, should be empowered and protected.
• Solidarity and inclusion: Technology should unite, not divide, people. Everyone should have access to the internet, to digital skills, to digital public services and to fair working conditions.
• Participation: Citizens should be able to engage in the democratic process at all levels and have control over their own data.
• Sustainability: Digital devices should support sustainability and the green transition. People need to know about the environmental impact and energy consumption of their devices.

Objective of rights and principles These rights and principles should accompany people:

• affordable and high-speed digital connectivity everywhere and for everybody,
• well-equipped classrooms and digitally skilled teachers,
• seamless access to public services,
• a safe digital environment for children,
• obtaining easy-to-understand information on the environmental impact of our digital products,
• controlling how their personal data are used and with whom they are shared.

Need for Digital Rights

1. Security

• Data protection: Protection of privacy and control of personal data as governments, companies and cyber criminals can easily collect our personal data and track our movements and communications.
• Responsible and secure data management: By the public and private sector and promoting cybersecurity awareness to equip all citizens with knowledge of how to use Internet and digital technologies.
• Tackling pandemics: Connectivity, access to data and digital technologies are a vital resource for governmental, educational, research, economic activity and innovation and will be central for the recovery efforts, including social and societal well-being.

2. Economic

• Support to MSMEs: Digital transformation of businesses by supporting MSMEs and entrepreneurs in harvesting the benefits of the digital transformation including fair and secure access to data.
• Skill upgradation: Supporting workers in adjusting to changes brought on by digitalisation to the labour market, including their working conditions, wellbeing, while being able to reap its opportunities, notably through education, training and re-skilling.
• Academia-industry linkage: Aligning R&D initiatives with the infrastructure and digitalization plans, thus promoting fundamental and applied research, enhancing the links between civil society, academia, the public and the private sector.

3. Social

• Promoting digital democracy: By promoting children’s participation, promoting women’s and girls’ participation and leadership, ensuring the rule of law online through equal access to justice, etc.
• Supporting hinterlands: Supporting isolated, remote, low density, low-income and outermost regions and communities in the digital transformation process in order to improve territorial cohesion, digital inclusion and local economic development.

4. Political

• Democratic digital transformation: Enhancing trust of individuals whether as students, learners, workers, jobseekers, consumers etc. in digital ecosystem to stimulate their involvement in a fair, sustainable, inclusive, democratic and competitive digital transformation.
• Fundamental right: “Right to access Internet” is a fundamental right available to Indian citizens under the articles such as Article 19, Article 21, Article 21A, etc.

Challenges 

1. Social

• Digital divide: Lack of connectivity or inadequate digital skills can lead to the creation of a new divide between the connected and digitized people, business and regions and those who remain disconnected and not-digitized.
• Violation of human rights: Use of digital technologies to surveil or crack down on protesters can lead to human rights violations, including infringement of the right to peaceful assembly.

2. Security

• Vulnerable to misuse: Digitalization also bears the risk of deepening existing inequalities or being misused to undermine democracies, spread dangerous misinformation and fuel discrimination, xenophobia and racism.
• Privacy issue: Data-intensive technologies contribute to creating a digital environment to track, analyse, predict and even manipulate people’s behaviour to an unprecedented degree thereby posing significant risks for human dignity, autonomy and privacy.
• Lack of focus on child rights: Policy approach to children’s digital rights is frequently cautious and reactionary, as many governments are limiting children’s rights in the name of protection.
  • Example: Surveillance systems that monitor and direct which websites children can access also give parents overreaching control of their children’s devices.

3. Political

• Rising inequalities: Digital technology can also worsen economic and other inequalities.
  • Example: In 2019, close to 87 per cent of individuals in developed countries used the Internet, compared with only 19 per cent in the least developed countries.
• Digitally facilitated repression: Authoritarian governments now have enhanced capacities to censor expression, block or filter access to information, monitor online activity, and control populations than they did in the pre-digital world.

Government interventions

1. International

• Internet Bill of Rights (Brazil): This law modifies the country’s constitution to give citizens, the government and organizations rights and responsibilities with regard to the Internet.
• Paris Call for safe and secure cyberspace: It is an agreement on nine fundamental cybersecurity principles and a commitment to work together to promote a safe and secure cyberspace for all.
• General Data Protection Regulation (EU): It is the toughest privacy and security law in the world. Though it was drafted and passed by the European Union (EU), it imposes obligations onto organizations anywhere, so long as they target or collect data related to people in the EU.
• Christchurch Call (New Zealand): To eliminate terrorist and violent extremist content online.

2. Legislative efforts

• Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019: It defines both personal and non-personal data and is a substantive framework which introduces a specialized regulatory approach for the protection and privacy of data in any form (digital or non-digital) in India.

3. Policy initiatives

• National Policy on Universal Electronic Accessibility: To eliminate discrimination on the basis of disabilities as well as to facilitate equal access to electronics and Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs).

4. Government schemes

• BharatNet: Flagship mission to connect 250,000-gram panchayats with broadband being implemented by Bharat Broadband Network Ltd (BBNL), a special purpose vehicle set up under DoT in February 2012.

Way Forward

• Human-centered technology: Digital infrastructures, digital products and services, networks must be in line with international law and should be human-centered, human-controlled, promote human well-being and human dignity.
• Limited collection and use of personal data: Data collection and use should be limited to what is reasonably necessary to provide a good or service requested by an individual. Purpose specification should be strictly enforced.
• Value-based approach: Upholding human rights, ethical values, and democratic participation in the context of the digital era by fighting discrimination, disinformation, and other malicious online activities.
• Multi-stakeholder and wider international cooperation: In fields such as standards, infrastructure, data flows, R&D and secure and trustworthy online services.
• Sustainable development: Recognising the importance of green and digital technologies, as a key element to a new paradigm of economic growth, balancing innovation and competitiveness with social and environmental sustainable development.
• Establish a data protection agency: Dedicated to privacy and data protection, oversight, and enforcement, with the authority and resources to address emerging privacy challenges.

An individuals’ rights to access, use, produce, and disseminate digital media, as well as to access and make use of computers, other digital devices, and telecommunication systems, are known as digital rights. In the context of digital technology, particularly the Internet, the concept is especially relevant to the protection and fulfilment of existing rights, such as the right to privacy and freedom of expression.

DATA COLONISATION

Data Colonialism refers to the phenomenon where data collected from countries all around the world is concentrated in the hands of a few multinationals (like Google and Facebook) and nations (like USA and China), which gives them disproportionate power and ability to exploit other countries.

Potential of Data

1. Predict Customer behaviour: It helps to target people by using data for commerce to understand a customer’s preferences and sell her just what she wants.
2. Digital advertising: It refers to marketing through online channels, such as websites, streaming content, and more. Digital ads span media formats, including text, image, audio, and video.
   • For example: Facebook generates the majority of its revenue from digital advertising, which isn’t possible without the data it collects from its 2 billion users.
3. Administrative use of data: A lot of such privately-held data can be used for governance and policy purposes.
   • For example: Data from ride-sharing companies such as Uber and mapping tools such as Google Maps can provide key insights into how people in cities travel and help develop solutions for making travel easier.
4. Use of data in health sector: It has the potential to make health care more preventive, predictive and personalized to reduce health care costs and better the patient outcomes. This rapid change is taking place because of increased access to big data and advanced data analytics.
5. Help in innovation: Self-driving cars wouldn’t exist without the availability of maps and the data of human behavior on roads among other things. Similarly, we wouldn’t be able to make weather predictions and plan ahead without the availability of data.
6. Digital Piracy: Online piracy is the practice of downloading and distributing copyrighted content digitally without permission, such as music or software.

Issues with Data Colonisation

1. Ethical

Unethical use of data: Platforms that accumulate user data disrupt industries, wield disproportionate influence and create silos. This leads to data domination.

• Risks from data domination: Violation of privacy, data colonization, and a winner-takes-all scenario that stifles innovation and competition.
• For example: The ‘free’ service that is provided by Google or Facebook is not actually free. Each website (or app) that we use and each page we view on the internet is recorded.

2. Political

Political misuse: Data can provide an intimate psychological profile including ideological preferences that help campaign managers target communications and forecast voter behaviour.

• Example: In the 2010s, personal data belonging to millions of Facebook users was collected without their consent by British consulting firm Cambridge Analytica, predominantly to be used for political advertising.

Affect sovereignty: The huge amount of personal data could be used as a weapon to influence decisions in politics and even in the international arena, which affects the sovereignty of a country.

• Example: The Russian government interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election with the goals of harming the campaign of Hillary Clinton, boosting the candidacy of Donald Trump, and increasing political and social discord in the United States.”

Economic benefits: The economic benefits will accrue to local industry in terms of creating local infrastructure, employment and contributions to the AI ecosystem.

New form of colonization: For example, Facebook, although it is not a country, the company holds data, including personal and private information, of more than 150 mn Indians. In this sense, India could very well be a colony of the popular social networking site, which not only holds our personal information but also tracks our daily routine, habits, behaviour, and communication.

Geo-strategic significance of data: How data will be employed fruitfully, and its value captured, will decide a nation’s rank in the emerging new global geo-economic and geo-political hierarchies.

3. Economic

• Cross-platform advertising: Data mined from users of social media may be used for targeted cross – platform advertising.
• Economic loss: A 2018 study commissioned by Facebook found that its data centre spending in the US had created tens of thousands of jobs, supported renewable energy investments and contributed US$5.8 billion to US GDP in just six years.
• Tax losses: Due to non-physical presence of big companies in local area they easily able to avoid tax liabilities, which amount to huge economic loss for countries.

4. Security

• Surveillance: Personal data can be used as a tool for surveillance and monitoring purposes, if not effectively regulated.
• Dependency: Developing countries’ structural dependency on foreign-owned digital infrastructure has affected their ability of independent policy and decision making.
• For example: While India is the country with the biggest amount of Facebook users, when you look at the location of Facebook’s 15 data centres, ten are in North America, four in Europe and

Importance of Data Sovereignty

1. To uphold the right to privacy: People in India have a fundamental right to privacy under Article 21 of the constitution. To protect the privacy of an individual it is imperative that their individual data is subject to domestic laws.
2. To ensure security and unity of country: The selling of such data to an enemy country could lead to the possibility of instigating ethnic conflicts in the country, which threatens the security and unity of the country.
3. To ensure political autonomy and non-interference: Personal data can be used to influence the political behaviour of an individual and that undermines the free and fair electoral process.
   • For example: Cambridge Analytica’s role in the 2016 US presidential election.
4. Economic significance: As the economy becomes more and more digital, dependency on foreign data infrastructure will be harmful for the economic growth of the country.
5. To ensure better service delivery: The digitization of governance in India needs data sovereignty to utilize the data for planning, executing, and monitoring of service delivery.
6. To ensure better law enforcement: Data sovereignty will allow the judiciary and other agencies to access data whenever needed. This reduces dependency on foreign corporations.
   • For example: If some data is required for a crime committed on social media, it is not freely available to investigation agencies at present.

Need for Data Localisation

• Data is the new oil: This huge data collected from individuals is owned by the giant companies such as Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon as a raw material, and they manipulate and monetize it, which is why data is said to be the oil of the digital era.
• Protect the personal and financial information: The main intent is to protect the personal and financial information of the country’s citizens and residents from foreign surveillance and give local governments and regulators the jurisdiction to call for the data when required.
• Accessibility: This will be beneficial for law enforcement agencies in particular as they can scavenge it for proof in case of breach or threat.
• National security: Data localisation is essential to national security. Storing data locally is expected to help law-enforcement agencies access information that is needed for the detection of a crime or to gather evidence.
• Economic benefits: The economic benefits will accrue to local industry in terms of creating local infrastructure, employment and contributions to the AI ecosystem.

International Practices

• Many countries have implemented or are in the process of implementing data localisation laws, including 
  • China, United States, Brazil, Indonesia, and Russia.
• Europe’s new data protection regime puts limits on cross-border data flows to countries that don’t have data protection laws.
• Australia mandates data localisation for health sectors, Canada mandates the same for all personal data.
• Similarly, while China mandates data localisation for personal, business and financial data, South Korea does it for geospatial and map data.

India’s several steps to ensure Data Sovereignty

1. RBI directive: To ensure that the entire data relating to payment systems operated by them is stored only in India.
   • It covers card payment services by Visa and MasterCard and companies such as Paytm, WhatsApp, and Google which offer electronic or digital payment services.
2. Personal Data Protection Bill: Government has introduced a personal data protection bill on the lines of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). It requires all sensitive and critical data to be stored in India. Further, it requires that a digital company must obtain explicit permission from a user before collecting their personal data.
3. Osaka track: India did not sign the Osaka track, which is a framework to promote the free flow of cross-border data.
4. Srikrishna Committee Report: At least one copy of personal data will need to be stored on servers located within India. Transfers outside the country will need to be subject to safeguards. Critical personal data will only be stored and processed in India.

Way Forward

• Balancing step: While large technology companies have often argued that steps such as data localisation would restrict free trade and that cross-border data flows are vital for a modern economy, it is incumbent on governments to prioritise the security and safety of their citizens’ data over the profit margins of large multinational companies.
• Creation of rules: Creating a responsible set of rules regarding mining, owning, sharing, and processing of such data can help regulate data resources and protect the privacy of citizens as well.
• Consent collection: Apart from a strong data protection law, an efficient consent process is needed. This could take the form of data consent, Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that allow consent collection, storage, and audits with users having the right to pull out their data anytime.
• Adequate infrastructure: In terms of energy, real estate, and internet connectivity also needs to be made available for India to become a global hub for data centres.
• Liability Clause: All major data collectors must compulsorily have the liability in case of data breach or misuse of their data for other political and socio-economic purposes.

Conclusion 

Colonizing a country no longer requires its physical invasion with military strength but can simply be done by controlling activities through networks and databases with a single click. Therefore, in the 21st century, data has become one of the most valuable resources on the planet. However, it needs to be ethically extracted, refined, distributed and monetized with the spirit of data democracy, unlike the way oil has been driven and produced wealth for mostly powerful nations. The Srikrishna Committee Report on data protection and the RBI guidelines for fintech firms are steps in the right direction, but a lot more needs to be done in terms of protection and localization if India is to use the resource of data effectively in the future.