Relationship status of technology and legislation: It's complicated

Presented at Still Hacking Anyway (SHA2017), Aug. 5, 2017, 10 p.m. (60 minutes)

Legislation is said to be slow to follow technological developments. This not only has an impact on the capacity of the police and intelligence services, but also has negative impact on the freedoms of citizens. In this talk I'll discuss some of the recurring issues and possibly solutions. #Politics #Privacy You often hear that legislation lags behind technological developments. Usually what is meant is that the powers of the police do not keep up with developments. But what is almost always overlooked: the same is true for the safeguards that are attached to the existing powers. I see a trend there: “With strong developing technology and safeguards for powers of the government staying the same at the same time, the infringement on the freedom of the citizen by that power grows equally as strong.” Privacy advocates of digital rights organisations often have to fight draconian laws with a huge impact on our freedoms. Sometimes this fight is over the change of single letter or punctuation, making a world of difference. Because we have to fight so many fights, it’s hard to step back a bit and see the recurring patterns. In this talk I’ll discuss a number of those recurring problems in the relationship between legislation and technology. I’ll also come with some suggestions for avoiding these issues.

Presenters:

  • Ton Siedsma
    Ton works as a policy advisor for the leading Dutch digital civil rights organization Bits of Freedom. The organisation fights for the protection of fundamental rights like freedom of speech and privacy on the internet.

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