RightsCon Tunis 2019

It has never been more important to protect and promote the responsible access, protection and use of data. Fighting for access to information and protecting privacy are two sides of the same coin - both principles seek to prevent corruption, promote freedom of expression and construct solid democratic institutions that have the interests of their citizens at heart. However, recent stories that revealed how personal information can be gathered and used in secretive, highly controversial ways have further tipped the scale in favour of restricting access to information. The way governments and corporations are increasing the use of algorithmic decision-making with an extensive collection of personal data, are creating tensions between these fundamental principles. Current data rights-based legal frameworks have contradictory approaches -- while many Right to Information laws are moving towards promoting open data by default, the General Data Protection Regulation in the European Union introduces specific privacy by default and by design obligation. To avoid back peddling on important strides in transparency reforms, this session seeks to unpack the intersections and conflicts across the open data and privacy camps in hopes of framing a shared vision that helps government officials navigate towards open and responsible data governance models.