It is our great pleasure to invite you to Big Brother is Watching You: Protecting Privacy in the Age of Surveillance. This four-day seminar — conducted in partnership with the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom European Dialogue Programme Brussels (FNF) — will delve into the issue of digital surveillance and the threat this poses to privacy rights. It will focus not only on the situation in places we already hear so much about, like the U.S., Europe and China, but will also concern itself with these issues in other parts of the world, notably Asia, Africa and Latin America. For this reason, we encourage participants from these regions to apply.
The seminar will be held in Brussels, Belgium, from 21 to 24 September 2023. Due to the generous support of FNF, all associated costs for your participation (travel, accommodation etc.) will be covered. Applications for participation can be submitted through this form until Sunday 13 August. For more information about the seminar, please read below. If you have any further questions, feel free to email office@iflry.org.
From the surveillance economy of social media platforms to spyware, privacy rights of citizens around the globe are under severe attack. Privacy rights and their necessity for healthy and just civic engagement is a core principle of liberalism. Yet, we see an invasion of privacy rights every day, starting from the surveillance business models of social media platforms that analyse, with no knowledge or consent of the user, the digital footprint of everyone, improving their addictive algorithms to sell more ads. While specialised commercial ads are a problem, having the same algorithms managing public discourse is even more dangerous. On the other end of the spectrum of privacy rights violations comes Spyware, where we saw that, even in Europe, several countries used ‘zero-click’ Spyware to invade the electronic devices of journalists and opposition figures.
Last year IFLRY started several discussions through different seminars on how young people envision the digital part of society, whether it is on social media, interaction with governments, democratic participation, or democratic discourse. We noticed a need for extra attention to privacy, how companies and governments treat citizens’ data, and how that is regulated. In addition, and as with so many issues, we feel that the discussion around digital surveillance and privacy rights often focuses on a few countries and regions, and ignores what is happening in the rest of the world. We would like to counteract this, and allow for a truly global discussion on this topic, not only by ensuring that the situation in countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America are taken into account, but also by ensuring a significant portion of participants come from this region.
This leadership seminar is our opportunity to connect IFLRY leadership and activists with governments, civil society, and academia to formulate and voice out our way of seeing the future of privacy in an ever more connected world. How regulations and strategies of the digital future should be tailored to the needs and aspirations of young people.
The seminar will be structured in three building blocks. The first block is about sharing and building awareness of the current threat to privacy, how the surveillance economy is working and how this is affecting our democratic discourse. Complementary to that, the meeting would discuss how governments are using this age of digitalization to suppress and limit freedoms such as freedom of assembly and freedom of expression.
The second block is an interactive comparative exercise on how different parts of the world govern the digital economy. The comparison discussion is usually done among China, the US, and Europe. In this meeting, we want to expand the debate to Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The block should be an experience-sharing exercise to help those activists advocate for new ways to safeguard privacy in their countries and regions.
The third block would be on what we can do as young people to protect our privacy and the privacy of other young activists who are under attack. Starting from spreading awareness on how to protect your phone to building worldwide support networks that help activists support each other’s causes and share experiences and best practices regularly to maintain a resilient youth front against the imminent threats to privacy rights.
Who Should Apply?
Young politicians, students, and activists with a keen interest in privacy rights, digital freedom, and good governance. The seminar is international, however, we are aiming for a higher number of participants from countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
Applicants who can demonstrate a commitment to driving change and influencing digital privacy rights in their communities will be highly valued. Fluency in English is required due to the seminar being conducted in English.
The seminar offers a unique opportunity to engage with a diverse group of individuals, share experiences, gain valuable insights into the global digital landscape, and contribute to the formulation of strategies for safeguarding privacy rights in our increasingly connected world.