Is Internet access now a human right?

The UN has come very close to affirming that Internet access is a human right:

1. Affirms that the same rights that people have offline must also be protected online, in particular freedom of expression, which is applicable regardless of frontiers and through any media of one’s choice, in accordance with articles 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights;
2. Recognizes the global and open nature of the Internet as a driving force in accelerating progress towards development in its various forms;
3. Calls upon all States to promote and facilitate access to the Internet and international cooperation aimed at the development of media and information and communications facilities in all countries;
4. Encourages special procedures to take these issues into account within their existing mandates, as applicable;
5. Decides to continue its consideration of the promotion, protection and enjoyment of human rights, including the right to freedom of expression, on the Internet and in other technologies, as well as of how the Internet can be an important tool for development and for exercising human rights, in accordance with its programme of work.

You can download the document here.

I'd not wholly convinced by this — the Internet is, without doubt, a hugely powerful tool, but it is just a tool, and who knows what tools will be available tomorrow? There is no human right of access to telephony, for example, or access to locks on doors (for the protection of privacy), so why refer to this particular technology?

The Washington Post has reported that there are plans during the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT), which is scheduled to be held in Dubai in December, to significantly alter the UN telecommunications treaty to allow countries to clamp down on the free flow of information via the Internet. Russia has proposed language requiring member states to ensure unrestricted public access and use of international telecommunication services, “except in cases where international telecommunication services are used for the purpose of interfering in the internal affairs or undermining the sovereignty, national security, territorial integrity and public safety of other states, or to divulge information of a sensitive nature.” The United States delegation to the WCIT has vowed to block any changes to the treaty that would curtail Internet freedom. The story can be read at http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-vows-to-block-any-changes-to-global-telecommunications-treaty-that-curtail-internet-freedom/2012/06/22/gJQA19sXuV_story.html. What are your thoughts from a legal perspective?

New Internet Domain Names

A topic which probably straddles a few modules - and I'll try to cross post.

You have probably seen reports of the ICANN initiative to allow (for a very significant price) organisations to bid for their own top level domain name. The link below

http://newgtlds.icann.org/en/program-status/application-results/strings-1200utc-13jun12-en

should take you to the current state of affairs. What do you think? My own feeling is that many of the names applied for will never be commercially successful. In itself perhaps not new with ICANN. There have been a number of top level domain names - such as .biz - which have been established and failed miserably in the market place.

Communications Data Bill

The government has announced the Communications Data Bill, which should be available here soon. The bill replaces Chapter I, Part II of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, which deals with access to communications data by law enforcement. Of particular note:

1.) The Secretary of State may require communications providers to collect data, rather than simply retain data generated in the course of business — it goes further that the data retention rules;

2.) In addition to retaining data, the bill purports to permit the Secretary of State to order communications providers to "generate" data — a particularly scary proposition, since it potentially means an order to change a business model or service structure, to gather more data;

3.) It provides for a filtering mechanism, whereby communications data from multiple providers will be shared with a central body (my money is on Detica), before extracts are passed to the requesting agency. Notionally, this is to protect privacy, but the rules-based filtering tool may cause concerns from a evidential point of view, and requires greater training of law enforcement officers. (Of course, if used as an investigative, rather than evidential, tool, that issue falls away somewhat.)

The bill removes access to data from local councils, which, frankly, should never have had access in the first place.

A "particularly deep intrusion into telecommunications privacy"

The EU executive is planning to refer Germany to the European Union's highest court over its failure to introduce a law obliging phone and internet companies to store records for at least six months:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/29/eu-dataprivacy-idUSL5E8GTE4C20120529

Having lived in Germany for 5+ years, I'm not surprised by this activity.

Queen's Speech: Internet monitoring plan to have 'strict safeguards'

How are people feeling lately about the draft UK legislation to monitor e-mails, phone calls and internet use?

I like this line: The government argues the law needs to keep pace with technological changes and enable the security services to confront changing threats to the UK.

If truly the case, I would expect that the government should be able to come up with plans that would focus on threats to the UK, rather than a blanket monitoring of the entire country (fully understanding this point:  laws date back to 2000 and they are not equipped to cover social media, Skype and other methods of communication.)

I guess my cynicism comes from having friends who work for the Police looking at this data currently, receiving thousands of lines of phone call data (nearest transmission point, number called, duration, etc) from the mobile providers. 

This legislation seems like it will produce massive amounts of data, rather than targetting people visiting website xyz, or dialing number x.

Net Neutrality: the Netherlands open the dance...

Hello,

I am not fluent in Dutch so I cannot read the original text; however, standing to the article below

http://www.broadbandtvnews.com/2012/05/09/dutch-embrace-net-neutrality/

the Dutch parliament has just approved a new law to regulate over the so called "net neutrality" principle.
Difficult to judge without reading the original text, but telcos are losing big bucks with Skype and similar services. If on one hand perhaps Skype's usability on a mobile is not the best, on the other Whatsapp seems to become a real alternative to SMS. I am not aware of any telco filtering Whatsapp traffic but... one never knows!

Regards,
Salva