Despite the data privacy law known as GDPR (The EU General Data Protection Regulation) which empowers online users to protect their private information, I blindy click “I accept” roughly twenty times a day, just to get access to what I want and quickly. It’s not a sign of trust, but rather me resigning to the fact that I won’t have the time to read, let alone understand the terms of conditions.

I should know better but at the same time I wonder if it really matters since my private data is constantly being collected in so many other ways. The smart phone I have near me 24/7 shares my very personal story anyway: when I go to sleep, which doctor I’m seeing, with whom I eat lunch, if I’m in a good mood and so on.[2]

In addition, with the spread of the Internet of Things (IoT), inter-connected devices are increasingly deployed in public spaces: interconnected cameras, sensors, power grids, transports systems, you name it. In businesses we find interconnected offices, warehouses or factories, where every human move is captured and reported. We happily equip our homes with AI technology that controls room and water temperature, light and music, creates shopping lists based on the fridge’s content, organizes appointments, connects with our fitness bracelets or body implants.[3]

Yet there is a price to pay for such convenience. As we slowly but surely become 100% transparent to those who collect and analyze our data: corporations, public authorities and other structures, an unsafe feeling of being constantly watched is emerging.

Some say, that they don’t mind as they have nothing to hide. Indeed, they claim this endless data collection and connectivity enhances rather than diminishes their sense of safety. 

Privacy is not, however, about hiding something bad about oneself. It’s a safe space where we can be ourselves. A space where we can express our intimate ideas, doubts, deviate from existing social norms, meet people we like, plan for change and develop actions. Societal changes such as respect for women’s right, acceptance of homosexuality, resistance to oppressive regimes and confidential peace talks all began in private safe spaces. The same is true of academia and business, innovation and experimentation. All of these areas needs a trusted space and a guarantee that no-one is being watched, censured or spied upon. Privacy is a human right, according to Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Furthermore, constant surveillance encourages individual conformism and thus hampers economic and societal change and progress.

And what about the increased sense of safety? Of course, always being trackable at any moment of any day can offer a sense of security. For example after a severe car accident, connected cars can automatically call for the emergency services. Facial recognition cameras deployed in public spaces facilitate the identification of criminals, and predictive policing is said to prevent crimes from even taking place.[4]

However, the infrastructure that is put in place to build a connected-safety-net also makes us very vulnerable to cyberattacks. The media repeateldly reminds us of this with reports such as those about identity thefts affecting 16.7 million victims in 2017[5], black mailing of companies such as Uber in 2016[6], the hacking of power grids in Ukraine in 2017 and so on.

To enjoy a real sense of freedom, we should not have to choose between safety and privacy. They are both essential to create that private trusted space that we all need to thrive whether as individuals, businesses or the wider society. Privacy is in reality, therefore, not a private matter; it is a common good that needs to be protected even more so in the digital age.

We all have a role to play in protecting privacy, irrespective of our role.

The following actions could help build trust in new technologies:

• Increase access to knowledge about the key changes and impacts that the current technology transformation is bringing into our life
• Businesses and other technology developers offering its users maximum security, transparency and control over personal data
• Integration of a “disconnect” option in most technology so that we can ensure and control our private spaces
• Multi-stakeholder conversations (conferences, forums, news media) are needed to define a shared vision of which values should underpin the current technology revolution, to reflect on its consequences and risks, and to consider how to make sure that privacy always comes first

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Annika Hartmann de Meuron is Managing Director Ethical Leadership in Business for Initiatives of Change (IofC) Switzerland. IofC Switzerland is aware of the unique historic opportunity to influence the development, use and impact of new technologies. We therefore hope to use the Ethical Leadership in Business Conference-Retreat from 27 June to 30 June 2019 on “Rethinking trust in the digital age” to inspire, equip and connect business leaders so that they can lead their organization in a human-centered way.In doing so, we hope they will contribute to building a trustworthy and sustainable digital future. Click here for more information.

Five years ago, Patrick Worms was sharing his passion for the power of agroforestry in development at the European Parliament. His friend, Hartmut Behrend from the German Bundeswehr, saw an unmissable opportunity, and insisted that Patrick come to Caux.

Intrigued by Hartmut’s praise of a fantastic conference set high among the clouds in a fairytale palace above Montreux, Patrick decided to go. He fell in love with the community of attendees, the place and the sense of mission. For him, as a biologist working for the World Agroforestry Centre, the Caux Dialogue on Land and Security (CDLS) was a natural fit. Its multidisciplinary approach reflected the broad focus that Patrick employs when considering the many different ways in which people’s interactions with their landscapes can affect everything from their livelihoods to the global climate.

Patrick says finding CDLS was like ‘coming home to a place I knew I belonged but had never been’. He was not new to the idea that land and security are interdependent. He had been involved in hard power and military issues, when he worked for the leaders of Georgia at the time of Russia’s invasion in 2008. Throughout his career he had felt that the worlds of greenery, development and hard security needed to be bridged. Experts in each field had to learn to work together to manage our crowded and much-abused planet.

Within two years of his first visit to Caux, Patrick was helping to organize the yearly dialogues. He is currently on the CDLS steering committee.

As Senior Science Policy Adviser for the Nairobi-based World Agroforestry Centre, Patrick handles policy and donor outreach in Europe. Key to his role has been his appreciation, heightened over the years through CDLS, that land and soil are security issues.

What has kept Patrick coming back to Caux? He says it is the way Caux deals with hard and complex problems, but in a mountain setting, removed from everyday pressures, with an ethos of calm reflection. CDLS brings together people from a wider variety of backgrounds than any other conference he has attended, facilitating productive discussions that would be unimaginable elsewhere. ‘The sheer variety of people at CDLS was a revelation’ he says. ‘Where else could you meet a NATO Assistant Secretary General, North Korean agroforesters and a hyperactive Tigrayan farmer?’

Caux’s service ethos also appeals to Patrick. ‘Working together physically to offer food to fellow delegates, rather than just talking, was… magical,’ he says. Caux is not a conference centre where people clock out at the end of the day: participants live there, sleeping, eating, talking, playing and serving each other. The CDLS has become an unmissable part of Patrick’s annual routine.

CDLS has given Patrick renewed inspiration and vigour in his work at the World Agroforestry Centre. His wife and daughter are also familiar faces at CDLS. He is now working with the CDLS team in an attempt to broaden its impact and influence and help it access more resources.

Initiatives for Land, Lives and Peace aims to deepen understanding of links between land degradation and human security and to build the trust needed for effective collaboration on the ground and in ‘land-peace partnerships’. As a programme of Initiatives of Change International, it inspires, equips and connects people to address world needs, starting with themselves.

Among other activities, each year ILLP organizes the Caux Dialogue on Land and Security (CDLS) in the Swiss village of Caux, in collaboration with Initiatives of Change Switzerland, the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

The CDLS is much more than an annual Dialogue. It is located at the centre of a growing network of practitioners working on every aspect of human security and ecosystem restoration. They support each other, inform each other, and collaborate with each other.

For the 2019 European Action Week against Racism, IofC facilitated two human libraries in Montreux and Vevey, offering face-to-face interactions on the links between discrimination, immigration and unemployment.

The events, in partnership with the municipalities of Montreux and Vevey and the Maison de Quartier Jaman 8, took place at the municipal library of Montreux and Veytaux on 18 March and the municipal library of Vevey on 21 March. They were moderated by Brigitt Altwegg, Programme Manager for IofC Switzerland.

The evenings started with a welcome speech by Maya Maharjan, who ran the Week against Racism in the area. Brigitt presented the five speakers: Gianfranco La Rosa, Salihe Lekiki, Khaled Omar, Esra Öner and Marie Saulnier-Bloch. Then members of the audience chose a speaker to engage with, by listening to their story for 10 minutes and talking with them for another 10.

The conversations that developed ranged from the practical to the philosophical. In some groups the speaker was given practical advice about how to find a job, while others discussed how to overcome bias. One of the human books, who has spent the last five years searching for a full-time job, said ‘It's not Switzerland's employers who discriminate against me, it's just that everybody is biased. I'm biased too. We all see the world through biased lenses. But when I feel I'm making assumptions about somebody I say "stop" and I try to work on myself.’

After two rounds of listening and conversation, the audience came together again. They were given one minute of silent reflection, and then the conversation continued in small groups. ‘Empathy’, ‘differences’, ‘resilience’, ‘insights’ and ‘resourceful’ were a few of the keywords that emerged.

Audience and speakers continued to talk over refreshments. Everybody seemed to have enjoyed the event: participants wished they could have had more time with the speakers, would have liked to have engaged with more than two of them and said they would come to a future human library.

Our next Human Library will be on 7 April in Geneva, you can read more here.