Privacy and data protection are controversial issues in the digital age. While there are laws and regulations for data protection in some countries, they are still weak and ineffective. This resulted in increased violations of digital rights, particularly the right to privacy, given the increasing interests of technology and telecommunication companies, internet service providers and governments to collect data for profit, monitoring citizens or militarizing digital spaces;
Some authorities and regimes violate their citizens’ privacy by giving security agencies the right to access their data. Moreover, the private sector and technology companies exploit the weakness/absence of regulations to sell the data without the consent or the knowledge of users to manage profitable advertisements.
Thus, this session highlights the subject of privacy and data protection by giving examples about the violations in Palestine, the Arab World and Europe as models to predict the future of the right to privacy.
This session will answer many questions, such as: what mechanisms do European laws use to protect users’ data and privacy? And to what extent do they provide protection? And why do these laws represent a turning point in this regard? In the Arab context, what are the laws currently available to protect users, especially human rights activists? This session will also deal with the current situation in Palestine in light of the Israeli control of telecommunications infrastructure and the violations of Palestinians’ digital rights.