Reading report week 2 : Batbayar Peljee (M1)
Chapter 4 : Sectoral policies
Demand-side policies: Open and safe internet use
The internet is very unique and complex at the same time, and it is one of the most used global communication media of the world. There are so many stakeholders involved in its operation and use. This section addresses creation of stability and security of the global internet and enabling trust for the internet to achieve its full potential.
Censorship and content filtering threaten the internet’s utility as an engine of growth
The internet makes possible for us open information exchange and freedom of expression. However, global view shows it filters political speech, but such filtering resulting loss of freedom. Internet also have to have ability to protect intellectual property, thus balance between providing access to internet and protecting intellectual property rights is very important. Generally, illegal distribution of copyright materials tends to lessen when they provide ways to access that material for a fair price. For example, iTunes, Google Play were mentioned in this report. I think in 2020, music and movie content streaming services such as Spotify, Netflix became available and illegal alternative declined. When it comes to filtering, every country has different redlines on content it regards as dangerous or offensive. Germany has restrictions on hate speech, while Thailand monitors comments about its king. The government has a big role here to restrict and also request to remove existing contents.
Cybersecurity: Trust in the internet will come from balancing the security of networks and information with the protection of individual rights
Cybersecurity commonly refers to systems and actions aimed at securing data and communications over the internet. It also sometimes includes “cybercrime.” Civilian attacks are now being uncovered as acts of cybercrime and cyberwar or cyberterrorism. Threats to personal security online, such as online identity theft, are also growing. This may erode public confidence in e-commerce and e-government applications, and make internet use less attractive and unfaithful. Weak cybersecurity is a significant problem worldwide, with both the scale of financial losses, and the costs of preventing them. A 2014 study put the global costs of cybersecurity at between US$375 billion and US$575, or about 0.6% of global GDP. Reliable estimates of the size of the problem are hard to obtain because firms and governments suffering from cyberattacks are unwilling to disclose losses. Also, the incentives to deal with cyberrisks need to change. For example, individuals sometimes do not take proper precautions to secure their devices or data, choosing less expensive hardware and software. Cybersecurity is expensive and complex (due to costs of “prevention” or costs of restoring security in “recovery and resilience” regimes). It may be economically rational to accept some degree of insecurity for the convenience. That said, there are also various ways of identifying the costs involved, including direct and indirect costs. There is a systematic framework for evaluating direct, indirect “cybercosts” precisely and identifying which stakeholders are most likely affected by particular costs. This kind of assessment will be key for policy planning.
In the cyberworld, governments also have an obligation, through their policies, laws, and institutions, to ensure the protection of data, communications, and critical infrastructure. Around the world, governments of both developed and developing economies are taking action at the national level to address cybersecurity concerns. But governments should do more to protect themselves and their citizens by cooperating at the international level, for example exchanging information on threats. In the areas of cybersecurity, there are few obvious policy recommendations that governments can play a role in developing effective policies. These policies should be guidelines or principles, not prescriptive, and should be technology neutral.
Protecting personal privacy and data online is essential in building trust in the internet
It is estimated that 90% of flow of personal data has been added in the last two years. Protecting personal data is the key for the datadriven economy, since it will increase trust in the internet, and greater trust will encourage more use. But the issue is not as simple as enforcing national laws that protect personal data. Data flows nowadays are global, so privacy regimes need to be interoperable with one another and there is more cooperation needed. Privacy concerns range from the personally sensitive to the seemingly trivial (search or browsing history). But even the most innocuous data can become harmful when used by third parties in unauthorized or unexpected ways. We use internet without thinking that much, and you may have heard that there has been so many crimes of stalking and murdering just because of that. For example, if your posts are all public, anyone can find you by stalking your history and locations from your post and can know where you live or work etc. Therefore, it is very dangerous for us and we should be responsible and be careful about our internet usage. Business models like Twitter or Facebook, grant us free storage, communication and in return they aggregate and analyze user-generated content to sell value to advertisers. But since it’s free we use it so much, every day and every hour and at the end data flow become problem.
Protecting the privacy of individuals and keeping them safe from terrorism or criminals is hard job. For example, law enforcement and national security agencies need access to mobile call data records (CDRs), to track criminals. But since it’s critical situation in my opinion it’s ok if they have appropriate safeguards and do it with authorization. But outside the domain of law enforcement, users need to have more control of their data. For instance, Electronic Health Record System in Estonia, which is based on the principle that citizens own their own health records and can easily access them and transfer them to doctors. At the international level United Nations General Assembly, The Africa Union Convention, The OECD has adopted resolution related to cyber security and data protection in different time frame. However, the protection story is becoming more complex. Because different approaches are making it difficult to develop truly global internet services and creating additional burdens and costs on businesses.
Promoting the digital economy
If the internet is widely available and affordable in certain country, and public trust has been established, it can become the best platform for promoting entrepreneurial opportunity. Indeed, 9 of the top 20 people in the Forbes 2015 billionaires list made their money from this sector. The U.S. economy has so far been the main beneficiary of the internet as a source of innovation because of the Silicon Valley. However, in recent years certain cities with doubtful climates have also developed a vibrant tech entrepreneurship scene, notably Bangalore, Berlin, Hangzhou etc. This suggests that the internet is creating a new set of geographical preconditions for innovation districts. Governments are generally not very good at picking technology winners and creating technology clusters. Also, their involvement in growing number of tech hubs and FabLabs has been minimal. But government policy can help to sustain coming up technology cluster, by setting favorable tax regimes or having policies that encourages to permit skilled workers.
Comment: Due to Covid-19, more people are using Internet than ever. They use social media to get an information and share news. And online businesses like Uber-eats are growing, also Amazon sales are growing rapidly, e-commerce, internet shopping becomes more frequent in overall. This means risk of all these internet safety related issues becoming critical. Also, I think that people are trying new things, for example different kind of online lesson in order to make a good use of their leisure time during pandemic. So, they are giving so many individual information by accessing different kind of websites and by paying for online lesson or goods. It also increases the risk of cyber-incidents. I think people need to be more cautious in this time and be careful with internet using. Also, governments should influence on strengthening the security of all platforms, and warn people from getting cyberattacks of any kind.