[Chapter-delegates] Privacy and the civil society Madrid Declaration

[Frederic Donck]

Dear Chapter delegates and individual ISOC members,

Recently there has been growing interest amongst our membership in
the areas of data protection and privacy. This is also an area of
great interest to ISOC. We are very pleased to see our Chapters and
individual members taking such an active interest in these issues.

Recently, The Public Voice (www.thepublicvoice.org) has asked
individuals and organisations to support its Global Privacy
Standards for a Global World The Civil Society Declaration Madrid,
Spain 3 November 2009. This document can be viewed at
http://thepublicvoice.org/madrid-declaration.

As we understand it, The Public Voice proposes to formally release
this document at a Civil Society organised conference on 3 November
2009 entitled
"Global Privacy Standards for a Global World" prior to the 30th
International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy
Commissioners in Madrid.

Some ISOC members and Chapters have publicly expressed their support
for the declaration.

We would like to take this opportunity to outline the procedure
Chapters must follow when taking public positions and/or making
public statements.

Specific officials of Chapters, acting on behalf of their Chapter,
may make public statements and establish public positions as long as
they meet the following requirements:

1. They must advance the purposes of the Internet Society, which
includes advancing the purposes of a Chapter in good standing.
2. They must not be contrary to any position of the Internet
Society.
3. They must be prepared and presented in a professional manner.
4. They must be clearly and unambiguously identified as originating
from the Chapter of the Internet Society.
5. It should be unlikely they will give rise to any significant
legal or juridical liability.

Where there is any question or doubt regarding the appropriateness
of a public position or statement, a Chapter is expected to consult
with ISOC at least one week prior to its release or announcement.
Chapters must also notify the ISOC no later than the same day of the
release of any public position or statement.

ISOC Finland Chapter has asked us to advise whether ISOC will be
supporting the Civil Society Madrid Declaration.

ISOC does not propose to express its support for the Civil Society
Madrid Declaration because we have some concerns about the way the
declaration is expressed.

We also consider that it would not be appropriate for ISOC to
support a document which might be viewed as seeking to remind
governments to apply their own laws and asserting without evidence
that there "is growing collaboration between governments and vendors
of surveillance technology that establish new forms of social
control".

Further, the document does not identify the privacy laws and privacy
institutions which are asserted to have failed to take into account
the described factors. Without knowing what these are and how they
are said to have failed to take them into account, we cannot assess
whether or not this statement is correct.

It is also unclear what are the "new strategies to pursue copyright
and unlawful content investigations" which are said to pose
"substantial threats to communications privacy, intellectual
freedom, and the due process of law". Without knowing what those
strategies are, we cannot comment on whether or not they pose
substantial threats to privacy.

Further, whilst devices or applications that observe and/or record
personal information may raise potential privacy issues, we do not
agree that the response should be to impose a moratorium on the
development or implementation of new technologies such as RFID etc.

Accordingly, we ask that you do not express support for this
Declaration as an ISOC member or Chapter.

You may, of course, support the Declaration in your personal
capacity.

Thank you very much,

Best Regards
Frederic

Frederic Donck
Director Public Policy
Internet Society

www.isoc.org