IGF 2020 OF #42 Personal Sovereignty: Digital Trust in the Algorithmic Age

In the wake of COVID-19 an erroneous dialogue has appeared in multiple governmental and global environments comparing the supposed tensions between privacy and protection in stemming the spread of the coronavirus disease. However, where it is assumed citizens need to give up location, biometric or medical data based on governmental or advertising based surveillance to combat the spread of COVID, key human rights may be violated as what is "best for society" to move beyond this crisis.

It is time for the advent of Personal Sovereignty -- when the digital environment serves to enhance human interests (of humans and their meaningful groupings). By creating tools for citizens, such as data governance frameworks and machine readable privacy terms for all, society can evolve the logic of a physical passport to a digital framework where people can be placed at the center of their data. Beginning with children to strengthen GDPR and Privacy by Design focused legislation, the creation of such tools allow individuals (or their caregivers) to better understand and influence the collection and use of their (or their children’s) data, as well as access and meaningfully curate and share their data as they choose. While people may still be tracked by advertising or government surveillance oriented tools, Personal Sovereignty provides all humans with their digital voice at an algorithmic level to face the future as empowered and proactive participants in digital democracy.

This proposed Open Forum session will provide an introduction to the mature and extended suite of currently available technologies, communities and standards that can be used to empower Personal Sovereignty to become ubiquitous in the age of the algorithm.

Citing examples from IEEE’s Digital Inclusion, Identity, Trust, and Agency program and many of IEEE’s volunteers, collaborators and contributing organizations to deal with COVID and beyond, and recommendations from The IEEE Global Initiative on Ethics of Autonomous and Intelligent Systems, this session will also provide an introduction to current efforts regarding protecting children's data and creating trustworthy experiences. It will feature discussion on the nature of data, Artificial Intelligence and ethics, as well as provide insights into the human-side of broad data-collection, sharing and use, and consequences of failure to consider the diverse users. This session will feature an interactive Q&A among the lead discussants and the participants centering on trust to gain diverse perspectives on what the future of trust in the algorithmic age looks like.