The World Summit on the Information Society – Privacy not Found?
Authors
Ralf Bendrath and Rikke Frank Jørgensen
Ralf Bendrath is a researcher at the Collaborative Research Center „Transformations of the State” at the University of Bremen, Germany, and co-coordinator of the WSIS Civil Society Privacy and Security Working Group. Rikke Frank Jørgensen is a senior advisor at the Danish Human Rights Institute, and co-chair of the WSIS Civil Society Human Rights Caucus
This article will explore how privacy was dealt with in the United Nations World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) process. WSIS was the first time that information and communication technology was linked to human rights and development on the global policy agenda. The article will argue that though the WSIS documents ended up with a formal commitment to human rights, there was de facto no recognition of privacy as a human right which is fundamentally affected by the design and use of technology. On the contrary, privacy continues to be dealt with as a marginal issue attached to an overarching agenda of state security. We will conclude that the post WSIS phase is showing some momentum in favor of privacy, due to new emerging alliances between civil society and industry.
