IT and public policy

The truth behind the BitCoin media hype 2
- Digital Policy and Internet Governance, Op-ed
- 13/12/2017
Imagine if every time you read about breast cancer in the newspaper there was an image of a crab holding onto a breast next to the article.
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Uber will wipe out skills not jobs 3
- Digital Policy and Internet Governance, Op-ed
- 09/09/2016
Uber’s announcement to add self-driving cars to its usual taxi services in the United States is as unexpected as it is indicative of the automated future of the sharing economy. Governments should limit their efforts to regulate the rapidly-evolving sharing economy and instead focus on developing relevant skills.
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EU-US data transfers: Why Safe Harbour 2.0 may just be an empty shell 1
- Digital Policy and Internet Governance, Op-ed
- 12/02/2016
The European Commission and the US have just come to a deal to replace Safe Harbour, which ensured a blanket allowance for EU-US data transfers before its invalidation by the European Court of Justice (ECJ). The newly-baptised Privacy Shield is supposed to set a framework for transatlantic data flows ensuring compliance with the EU Data Protection Directive. However, except for a fancy new name and a couple of nice declarations of intention, there is – at this time – no sign that it will offer better guarantees regarding EU citizens’ rights to privacy and data protection.
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EU-PNR directive: Overlooking EU fundamental rights will not make Europe safer 2
- Digital Policy and Internet Governance, Op-ed
- 09/01/2016
On 2 December 2015, the European Parliament’s Civil Liberties (LIBE) Committee endorsed a directive on “the use of passenger name record (PNR) data for the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of terrorist offences and serious crime” (EU-PNR). It seems, therefore, that the long journey of the EU-PNR directive – initially proposed in 2011 – is coming to its end, as the European Parliament (EP) is expected to hold a final vote in February 2016. However, this directive still seems strongly contestable – and contested – on the grounds that it jeopardizes EU citizens’ fundamental rights to privacy and data protection (Art. 7 and 8), while its effectiveness in fighting terrorism remains unclear
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What does the internet mean?3
- Digital Policy and Internet Governance, Op-ed
- 19/12/2015
The United Nations’ (UN) 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development declares seeking “to bridge the digital divide”, including as its 9th goal the aim to “[…] significantly increase access to information and communications technology and strive to provide universal and affordable access to the Internet in least developed countries by 2020”. The op-ed is focused on one particular aspect of the current debate on Net Neutrality, namely zero-rating, and its implications for internet users around the world.
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