Data governance

UN World Data Forum concluded with a call for better data governance

The United Nations World Data Forum, which was held in Hangzhou City, China, called for better data governance and increased collaboration between governments to achieve a sustainable future. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres noted that data is a critical component of development and progress in the 21st century.

The Fourth UN World Data Forum saw delegates engage in various sessions across four themes: innovation and partnerships for better and more inclusive data; maximising the use and value of data for better decision making; building trust and ethics in data; and emerging trends and partnerships to develop the data ecosystem. Highlights included insights from the Data for Now Initiative, innovative ways for increasing timeliness and coverage of SDG indicators, and a session on public-private data collaboration during crises.

China, which hosted the event, has pledged to contribute more to global data governance, by hosting international training, supporting the development of the UN Global Platform for Big Data China Hub, and promoting international data cooperation within the framework of the Global Development Initiative.

Data poisoning – a new type of cyberattacks against AI systems

Data poisoning is a new type of cyber-attack aimed at misleading AI systems. AI is developed by processing huge amounts of data. The quality of data impacts the quality of AI. Data poisoning is the intentional supply of wrong or misleading data to impact the quality of AI. Data poisoning is becoming particularly risky with the development of Large Language Models (LLM) such as ChatGPT.

Researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich, Google, NVIDIA and Robust Intelligence have recently published a preprint paper investigating the feasibility of data poisoning attacks against machine learning (ML) models used in artificial intelligence (AI). They injected corrupted data into an existing training data set in order to influence the behaviour of an AI algorithm that is being trained on it. It impacted the functionality of AI systems.

As AI systems are becoming more complex and massive, the detection of data poisoning attacks will be difficult. The main risks are in dealing with politically charged topics.

US state of Utah introduces laws that prohibit social media platforms from allowing access to minors without explicit parental consent

In the USA, the Governor of Utah, Spencer Cox, has signed two laws introducing new measures intended to protect children online. The first law prohibits social media companies from using ‘a practice, design,
or feature that […] the social media company knows, or which by the exercise of reasonable care should know, causes a Utah minor account holder to have an addiction to the social media platform’. The second law introduces age requirements for the use of social media platforms: Social media companies are required to introduce age verification for users in Utah and to allow minors to create user accounts only with the express consent of a parent or guardian. The laws also prohibit social media companies from advertising to minors, collecting information about them, or targeting content to them. In addition, there is a requirement for companies to enable parents or guardians to access the minors’ accounts. and minors should not be allowed to access their social media accounts between 10:30 pm and 06:30 am.

The laws – set to enter into force in March 2024 – have been criticised by civil liberties groups and tech lobby groups who argue that they are overly broad and could infringe on free speech and privacy rights. Social media companies will likely challenge the new rules.

IoT Tech Expo Global 2023

The seventh annual Internet of Things (IoT) Tech Expo Global will be held from 30 November until 1 December 2023 in London, UK.

It is one of the 5 co-located events that will take place during these two days, among Cyber Security & Cloud, Blockchain, AI & Big Data, and Digital Transformation. The key topics that will be covered include digital Transformation, Data Analytics, IIoT & Smart Manufacturing, Connected Environments, Developing for the IoT, Process Optimisation, Sensor Deployment, Connectivity Considerations, 5G & Future Connectivity, Security & Standards, Cloud Computing, Autonomous Transportation, and  Device & Asset Management, among others.

For more information, please visit the event page. 

San Diego Supercomputer Center and Singapore Advanced Research and Education Network commit to improving data access for researchers in Asia

The San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at the University of California San Diego (USA) and the Singapore Advanced Research and Education Network (SingAREN) have announced a partnership aimed at improving data access for researchers in Asia. The partnership will leverage SDSC’s expertise in managing large-scale data repositories and SingAREN’s network infrastructure to create a data cache server to be hosted at the SingAREN Open Exchange. The cache server – described as a data block for storing information for easy re-access – will enable researchers across Asia to have faster and more efficient access to data, in particular geospatial, genomic, and climate data.

Expected to be operational by the end of 2023, the data cache is part of a broader effort to promote collaboration and data sharing across the global research community.

Fifth compromise text on EU Data Act

The Swedish presidency of the Council of the EU circulated a fifth compromise text on the Data Act, reports Euractiv. One of the changes introduced in the text refers to trade secrets: According to the Data Act, users of connected devices have the right to access the data they contribute to generate, or delegate that right to a third party that might use the data to develop a new service. Because such data sharing obligations raised concerns over the exposure of trade secrets and sensitive commercial information, next text has been introduced that gives the data controller the possibility to refuse an access request if they can demonstrate that the access will likely lead to serious economic damage.

Other changes regard the compensation that would apply for business-to-business data disclosures and the option for cloud providers to include early termination penalties in their contracts.

The Data Act is a flagship legislation for the EU and aims to regulate how industrial data is ported, accessed, and shared.

Mozilla publishes guide for reshaping data economy

Mozilla published a series of reports which explore data governance approaches around the world, with a focus on Germany, India, Kenya, and the USA. The reports – under the overarching title Is that even legal? A guide for builders experimenting with data governance provide case studies illustrating trustworthy data intermediary for reproductive health data post-Roe v. Wade in the USA; how the EU’s new Data Governance Act can be used to advance data altruism in Germany; how to create a data commons in India to hold electricity suppliers accountable; and how data can be pooled to improve Nairobi’s transportation system. The reports also offer tech developers a roadmap of key laws and regulations in their field and outline opportunities for challenging extracting data practices.

Twitter plans to end free access to its API

Twitter announced that starting 9 February 2023, it would no longer support free access to its application programme interface (API), both v2 and v1.1. A paid basic tier will be available instead, although details about how much the company plans to charge for API usage are not yet available.

Following the announcement, concerns have been raised about the impact of the new policy on research in different areas, including hate speech and online abuse. Putting a cap on free API usage could also stop firms working around detecting the spread of misinformation on Twitter.

India to launch national data governance policy

Indian finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that the government is working on approving a national data governance policy to ‘unleash innovation and research by start-ups and academia’. The goal is to ensure greater citizen awareness, participation, and engagement with open data, increase the availability of datasets of national importance, and identify datasets suitable for sharing and improve overall compliance to secure data sharing and privacy policies and standards. A core component of the data governance framework will be the formation of an India Data Management Office (IDMO) under the IT ministry. A draft data governance policy was published for public comment in May 2022.

Inter-Parliamentary Union

The IPU is the global organisation of national parliaments. It was founded more than 130 years ago as the first multilateral political organisation in the world, encouraging cooperation and dialogue between all nations. Today, the IPU comprises 180 national Member Parliaments and 15 regional parliamentary bodies. It promotes democracy and helps parliaments develop into stronger, younger, greener, more gender-balanced, and more innovative institutions. It also defends the human rights of parliamentarians through a dedicated committee made up of MPs from around the world.

Digital activities

The IPU’s digital activities mainly focus on the promotion of the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in parliaments. To this end, it has established a Centre for Innovation in Parliament, which undertakes research on the impact of digital technologies on parliaments, publishes the landmark World e-Parliament Report, hosts the biannual World e-Parliament Conference and co-ordinates a network of parliamentary hubs on innovation in parliaments.

Digital policy issues

Capacity development 

In line with its objective to build strong and democratic parliaments, the IPU assists parliaments in building their capacity to use ICTs effectively, both in parliamentary proceedings and in communication with citizens. The IPU has also been mandated by its member parliaments to carry on capacity development programmes for parliamentary bodies tasked to oversee observance of the right to privacy and individual freedoms in the digital environment.

The IPU also encourages parliaments to make use of ICTs as essential tools in their legislative activities. To this aim, the IPU launched the Centre for Innovation in Parliament in 2018 to provide a platform for parliaments to develop and share good practices in digital transformation strategies, as well as practical methods for capacity building. The IPU holds the World e-Parliament Conference, a biannual forum that addresses from both the policy and technical perspectives how ICTs can help improve representation, law-making, and oversight. It also publishes the annual World E-Parliament Report. 

As of August 2023, eight regional and thematic parliamentary hubs are operating under the Centre for Innovation in Parliament, covering IT governance, open data and transparency, hispanophone countries, Eastern Africa, Southern Africa, the Caribbean, and the Pacific. Each hub is co-ordinated by a national parliament and brings together parliaments to work on subjects of common interest, such as remote working methods during COVID-19.

In 2023 IPU published a Guide to digital transformation in parliaments, in partnership with the Association of Secretaries General of Parliament.

Sustainable development 

The IPU works to raise awareness about the sustainable development goals (SDGs) among parliaments, and provides them with a platform to assist them in taking action and sharing experiences and good practices in achieving the SDGs.

Privacy and data protection 

One of the IPU’s objectives is to promote and protect human rights. To this aim, its Committee on Democracy and Human Rights is involved in activities aimed to contribute to ensuring privacy in the digital era and the use of social media as effective tools to promote democracy. A 2015 resolution on ‘Democracy in the digital era and the threat to privacy and individual freedoms’ calls on parliaments to create adequate mechanisms for the protection of privacy in the online space, and to ensure that legislation in the field of surveillance, privacy, and data protection is based on democratic principles. 

Freedom of expression 

The IPU’s Committee on Democracy and Human Rights works, among others, on promoting the protection of freedom of expression in the digital era and the use of social media as an effective tool to promote democracy. In 2015, the IPU adopted a Resolution on ‘Democracy in the digital era and the threat to privacy and individual freedoms’ encourages parliaments to remove all legal limitations on freedom of expression and the flow of information, and urges them to enable the protection of information in cyberspace, so as to safeguard the privacy and individual freedom of citizens. 

In 2023, the Committee decided to prepare a resolution titled The impact of artificial intelligence on democracy, human rights and the rule of law, for adoption in October 2024. Preparation of the resolution is accompanied by capacity-building activities for parliamentarians on AI.

It offers virtual training sessions for parliamentarians. Its IPU Parline database is an open data platform on national parliaments, which includes data on the age of people in parliament as well as a monthly ranking of women in national parliaments.

Social media channels

Facebook @InterParliamentaryUnion
Instagram @ipu.parliament_official
LinkedIn @ Inter-Parliamentary Union
X @IPUparliament
YouTube @Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU)