[Privsec] Privacy ranking high at IGF consultations

[Ralf Bendrath]

Dear all,

a brief update:

A quick review of the documents and transcripts for the IGF consultations 
shows pretty strong support for privacy:

1. Short synthesis of written contributions and discussions
<http://www.intgovforum.org/brief.htm>
In this short "most popular" list, privacy is ranked 5th of the top ten 
suggestions, and it's the first ine dealing with human rights aspects. :-)
The full list:

"In addition to the overarching development and capacity building 
priorities, a review of the questionnaire responses and the transcripts of 
the consultations shows the following as the top ten most frequently 
mentioned public policy issues:
    1. Spam
    2. Multilingualism
    3. Cybercrime
    4. Cybersecurity
    5. Privacy and Data Protection
    6. Freedom of Expression and Human Rights
    7. International Interconnection Costs
    8. Bridging the Digital Divide: Access and Policies
    9. Bridging the Digital Divide: Financing
   10. Rules for e-commerce, e-business and consumer protection."


2. Summary of the discussions and contributions
<http://www.intgovforum.org/Summary%20of%20discussions.htm>

Here, Privacy is mentioned at length, and they picked up our suggestion:

"On the issue of privacy and data protection several contributions 
discussed the evolving concept of digital identity.  It is predicted that 
these new technologies will allow a greater degree of public trust once 
policy deliberation has clarified the benefits and risks of on-line life. 
  Another issue discussed under this category concerned protection of the 
privacy rights of Internet users and website owners. Several of the 
contributions brought out the linkage between privacy and data protection 
and governance and human rights."

3. At today's consultations, according to the transcripts at 
<http://www.intgovforum.org/contributions/IGF-190506am.txt> and 
<http://www.intgovforum.org/contributions/IGF-051906pm.txt>,
privacy was mentioned and suported by
- US Government
- Robert Guerra (Privaterra)
- Robin Gross (IP Justice)
- German Foundation for Law and Informatics
- Bertrand de La Chapelle (WSIS-Online.net)
- Wolfgang Kleinwächter (IG Caucus)
- Council of Europe

Thanks to Bertrand and Robert as our members for pushing this!

4. Among the members of the Multistakeholder Advisory Group for the IGF 
(see <http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs//2006/sga1006.doc.htm>), Titilayo 
Akinsanmi, Qusai Al-Shatti, Robin Gross, Jeanette Hofmann, Veni Markovski, 
and Adam Peake have been supporting stronger privacy protection in the 
past and surely will do so in the upcoming work. Qusai and Veni are 
members of this group.
There might be more, but I don't know many of the MAG members. Maybe 
others can help out?

This all is pretty encouraging. Let's keep pushing.

Best, Ralf