Towards a social control of information technology
Contribution to the PES' works and to the programs for elections of the European Parliament
Proposed by
temPS réels, internet branch of the Parti socialiste (France),
VOV (Virtueller Ortsverein), virtual branch of the SPD (Germany)
Olga Zrihen, member of the European Parliament, Parti socialiste (Belgium)
Jean-Maurice Dehousse, member of the European Parliament, Parti socialiste
(Belgium)
Ian Brown, director of the FIPR (Foundation for Information Policy Research,
U-K)
Information technologies are now widespread in our society. They deeply affect conditions of human action, both individual and collective. They increase the expressive abilities of individuals, while raising the efficiency of corporations and organisations. However, a conservative "counter-revolution" threatens their most innovative aspects.
The technologically neutral and egalitarian open point to point architecture, where cooperation is the keyword, is under serious threat. The European left must be at the forefront of a positive political project to deal with the economic, legal and technological issues involved.
The questions facing the Information Society, including the most highly charged issues, such as the general deployment of the electronic identity card or the electronic vote, must be the subject of a wide debate. What appears to be technological progress is calling into question the very foundations of the model of our democratic society.
With the forthcoming European Parliament's election, the PES (Party of European Socialists) should launch a public debate on the digital society we want to build.
1 - Privacy must be protected
Privacy issues will become more and more sensitive in a massively digital and interconnected environment.
Europe has created a real right to privacy. The protection of personal data appears in the Charter of Fundamental Rights. The directive 95/46/CE of 1995 has defined a protective framework, supervised by independent data protection authorities.
However, new risks of ill-considered recording of information by private actors are emerging from the new forms of data acquisition and tracing as well as the development of technologies such as search engines.
Public bodies are also tempted by the possibilities of data matching, unique identifiers and the extension of the techniques of collection and storage of data, most noticeably in e-administration and to fight terrorism.
A wide debate on these questions is necessary, where the right to anonymity and oblivion (the right "to be forgotten") should be defended. The goals of the electronic identity card and the data that should be stored to achieve them must be taken into careful consideration.
2 - The information commons must be protected and extended. "Intellectual property" provisions must be balanced
Technological progress is causing the dematerialization of knowledge and know-how.
The ability to perfectly copy texts, music, pictures, movies and software offers new opportunities for the circulation of works and knowledge.
Creation is an incremental process, a careful use of existing knowledge to which the authors add their original work. To reinforce this process requires a large public body of freely accessible and modifiable knowledge and tools.
The process of erosion of the public domain must be reversed and the production of works freely usable, modifiable and redistributable by all must be encouraged. The effect of any legislation on the development of derived works must be studied carefully.
The granting of new rights to some must be the subject of an impact study on the other categories of society. The rights of the participants in the process of creation and those of the public must be placed on an equal footing. In particular, the policy of intellectual appropriation by the endless extension of the duration of copyright must be fought.
3 - Freedom of speech and interoperability must be protected
The information society, just like the traditional society, can function correctly only if everyone can communicate from one point to another without being blocked by undue technical barriers. Relevant legislation must encourage the interoperability of systems and networks to make it possible for all to reach and contribute to knowledge with respect to cultural diversity.
Crimes such as incitement to hatred or racism and child pornography on the Internet, must of course be punished just are they are anywhere else. But they should not be used as an excuse to introduce illiberal laws and excessive filtering making it possible in particular for public or private players to collect information on a third party without first obtaining the authorization of a judge.
Such laws cannot be justified as being in the interests of public security : according to relevant police departments, and in spite of a common public and media misrepresentation, these crimes are much more frequently successfully solved if they are committed using the Internet than if not.
Access to works should not be subjected to controls that are contrary to the principles of privacy. Anonymous access to opinions is fundamental for democracy.
Freedom of speech must not be impaired by technology. Regulations and technical measures impacting information flow must be carefully studied.
4 - Networked working : new stakes for a European social dialogue
A majority of Europeans either use computers at work or take part in a computerised production process.
Technology paves the way for new types of monitoring. Control systems, widely computerised, can record workers' transactions and their passing through access controls.
Widespread use of the Internet within companies creates new issues. Trade unions can use company networks to address members and employees. This right should be regarded as a modern equivalent of traditional workers' rights to information.
The rights of workers to what they create or produce are poorly defined and sometimes even denied. Nowadays, an intellectual worker is all too often forbidden to use the methods and techniques used or invented in a former job. Granting of all rights to the company is far too often the rule, impairing further development of workers' creativity.
These stakes, very concrete for workers, call for the definition of new rights, or full implementation of existing ones. Even though national, sector and company specifics should be taken into due consideration during negotiations, a set of core principles encompassing all workers from all member states are called for.
5 - Towards a computer science Europe
In order for Europe to emerge as an independent economic power, it should organize and develop strong industrial software alternatives.
In 2002, Europe spent 155 billion euros on software (188 billion US dollars), 31% of which (48 billion euros) was spent to buy software packages, mostly from America.
Europe does not need to remain in a subordinate position in this sector. It has large assets : innovative research, powerful service companies, and numerous software developers.
It can benefit from the technological and socio-economic disruption that periodically affects the software market. Certain approaches, such as free software, redistribute the role of the players (editors, integrators, users), and can change current market positions.
A more coherent reorganisation of the instruments at its disposal is expected from the European Commission :
- a competition policy having a dissuasive effect upon the abuses of the leaders of the sector ;
- a reorientation of the framework program for research to software technologies (mostly spent on the development of applications) ;
- a stable legal framework ; with interoperability already part of Union's treaties, Internal Market Directorate insistence on enforcing software patents in Europe entails insecurity for developers.
6 - Information technologies helping with sustainable development
Productivity gains in the years to come will result from the clever management of information, natural resources, flow of matter and persons, work and time.
Tomorrow, information technologies will enable worldwide traceability of the food chain. Further use of computers in vehicles, electrical goods and factories, will lead to reduced pollution, increased energy efficiency, lower water and raw materials consumption, and enables equipment monitoring to prevent failures and disasters.
Due to their widespread availability, it is important for production and use of the knowledge's dematerialization formats to be more respectful of environment, health and workers safety.
A European directive on electrical and electronic waste will come into force in 2005.
Beyond this directive, it is desirable to encourage the development of the eco-efficiency of information technology products, to extend the lifetime of tools and to encourage by tax incentives the creation of a second hand market.
7 - For a participative democracy
The modernisation of electoral processes is on the agenda in Europe. Following Belgium, several member states are considering the widespread use of the electronic vote. Some are experimenting with remote electronic voting and its use in the near future. The Commission is very active in this field, supporting consortia and financing experimentation.
We request a moratorium on electronic vote deployment.
The reason is issues with electronic voting, due to the importance of transparency and accuracy in the election process, and the absence, as of today, of any reliable electronic voting mechanism simultaneously offering long term anonymity and accountability, both fundamental properties of democracy.
The effective supervision of polls by private companies is unacceptable and dangerous in a democracy.
The main argument used by supporters of electronic voting, increasing turnout, is invalidated by experience in the one place where it has been in widespread use : the USA, world leaders for abstention in a democracy. It is also important to take due note of numerous major voting machine frauds made possible in the same country by poll automation.
Remote electronic voting implies renouncing the voting booth, consequently no longer enforcing the voter's freedom of choice through protection from any external influence.
8 - Building a PES network
PES member parties are looking for more open and flexible ways to organise and deliberate.
The same issue impacts PES : while remaining a federation of parties, how could contacts, cooperation, debates and common initiatives between socialists of different countries be made easier ?
PES could encourage creation of "networked themes"
They would gather Socialists from various countries. They would make it possible to run debates and initiatives on political topics by considering experiments and points of view from several countries' experts and activists, such as bioethics or reform of the educational system, social responsibilities of companies or music's new methods of distribution and subsequent artists' remuneration.
Operation of these networks would rest largely on what the Internet can provide outside regular meetings. PES should run the logistics of these networks, offering tools (discussion lists, forums, wiki, Web sites), a translation budget, and support for meeting organisation.
The PES could also encourage a reflection on the use of the Internet in communications and political practice
It could build on the experiments and the "good practice" of the parties of the PES and make recommendations on the best software tools.
- list experiments and "best practice" from PES parties
- recommend best software tools to improve communication between Socialists
- initiate tools mutualization
In any event, the PES could already encourage party members Web sites to use protocols (like RSS) in order to support exchange of content between national sites ("syndication").
- The PES could also encourage twinning between federations and local sections of the party members