Hi!
I'm thinking how many connections there are between Technology and Politics. So, here, I will use this post today to express a few of them.
If you got a few minutes, feel free to read this and see what might be in here for you.
The relationship between technology and politics has always been closely intertwined, and this connection will continue to evolve over time. You can't engage in politics without having the tools that technology provides readily available. Similarly, you can't effectively utilize technology without being involved in politics in some capacity.
Technology plays a crucial role in shaping the political landscape, especially as voters increasingly inhabit the virtual realm. Being present on social media, having a website, a blog, or a strong online presence makes reaching them easier.
Modern politics is about interaction, clear messaging, and politicians being able to reach their target audience quickly and attract as many voters as possible to their side. You can't thrive in politics and adapt without focusing on technology. Understanding and using technology effectively is key to connecting with people who truly resonate with your message.
A careful analysis of the relationship between politics and technology reveals several facets of this tool, technology, in relation to an increasingly complex political landscape. These facets need to be understood and internalized before technology can be fully utilized in politics to its true potential.
Technology serves as a tool for political actors, aiding in identifying and reaching out to target voters who respond to the conveyed message. Commercial TV campaigns, Facebook ads, various email announcements, and promises are all intertwined with technology, demonstrating that politics and technology are inseparable. The most powerful methods of using technology to your advantage as a politician include data collection and the use of digital mass media. Barack Obama's successful election campaign, leveraging social media networks for granular data collection about demographics and voting methods, exemplifies this. Granular data collection became a staple in subsequent years, being fundamental to any successful political campaign. The collected data becomes useful when creating marketing campaigns, delivering targeted political messages, or cultivating relationships with donors.
Another significant way technology impacts politics is more subtle: establishing authenticity with certain groups of voters. Every effort is made to attract younger generations and secure voters for guaranteed success in future campaigns.
Technology as a political subject and campaign platform is frequently discussed by many politicians. Issues like access to private data, online privacy, and the "right to be forgotten" have become hot topics in any international campaign. Each individual has the freedom to request data deletion or exclusion from certain online statistics. Another debated issue in campaigns is equitable access to technology. Many people lack access to the internet or high-speed internet, and dependence on technology and the internet is growing. While small victories in areas with limited technology access may occur, they pale in comparison to the larger battle on a global scale.
Modern campaigns rely on technology, utilizing it to develop and strengthen both online and offline presences in a more natural and organic manner. Starting a successful campaign online and building a coherent campaign from online to offline simplifies achieving success.
Technology is not just a tool for politicians and political organizations to influence political decisions. Digital platforms and social media offer citizens the perfect tool to contribute to political change. Additionally, technology affects politics by exposing illegal or unethical behavior. If you look closely, you'll find digital traces of any wrongdoing by politicians.
Technology is a double-edged sword in politics. The same highly useful technological tools that allow us to work, play, and entertain ourselves are also the best tools for actors who seek only revenge or to cause harm. Many hackers become involved in attacks aimed at changing political perspectives or sabotaging political campaigns and politicians. Then there are fake news, false stories that distort the truth to "attack" a person or generate financial and political gains. They rely on sensationalism and the absence of truth, which is challenging to prove at first glance.
And this second part, I want to make it a bit more insightful on countries' laws, Politics, Science and the mindsets beneath this design thinking.
India has not explicitly defined the principle of confidentiality in its Constitution, but it established a legal framework for information technology starting in 2000 and improved security practices and procedures until 2011 when sensitive personal data and information played a significant role in the country's revenues. Consequently, the rules from 2011 implement the principle of responsibility for data collectors, transparency regarding the type and purpose of collected and stored data, user consent principle, and data security assurance. What Indian authorities consider sensitive information includes biometric data, medical records, sexual orientation, banking history, and any other information not accessible to the public. These rules, in fact, have a similar effect to what GDPR does, except they address Indian residents.
In August 2018, Indian authorities drafted a framework for personal data privacy in a bill intending to align with user protection standards and sustain the rapidly growing digital economy, forming an independent regulatory body to enforce data protection law and impose sanctions on both private and public sectors, considering that India's online market is the second largest after China's.
India is taking effective measures to align with European privacy policy to maintain trade and economic growth, demonstrating once again that public policy aligns with national strategy, despite other national policies regarding human rights protection, which are still a few steps behind.
For comparison, Chinese users have a comprehensive legal framework to protect their privacy data, yet numerous corporate and governmental experiences with data in China show that their legal guarantees are just part of effective data privacy measures, as illegal data transactions in China have increased. To demonstrate this, in April 2018, an artist named Deng Yufeng purchased and included private data from 346,000 individuals in China in his exhibition, after which authorities closed his art exhibition within 2 days and charged him. Research on privacy protection in China shows how the content of confidentiality changes depending on context and culture, and nowadays, Chinese people consider the most important personal data to be identification numbers, followed by personal phone numbers. Similar to the European perspective on personal data, Chinese people believe that real names, home addresses, and IP addresses are important personal data elements that should be protected by those who receive and store such information, who are actually private operators.
In 2017, China's network security law sets out the principles governing data collection and the standards that any entity collecting private data should meet. Interestingly, the government emphasizes how data collection should be primarily legal, justified, and necessary, with minimal collection, short retention, and usage falling under a minimal purpose, much like how the European Parliament states in GDPR.
China takes a step forward in assessing citizens' private data by piloting a social credit system scheduled to be in effect by 2020, which should rely on data analysis technology and is meant to influence social opinion to achieve integrity as perceived by authorities.
The effort is strongly controversial, and it remains unclear how authorities will ensure a set of useful tools to serve their citizens, considering the extent to which users can challenge their social score. This governmental collection of metadata has utilized user privacy beyond what other states achieve through effective public policies and democratic processes.
The data protection framework in the United States is not regulated by a single principal data protection law; protection is granted through the application of regulations at both national and state levels and is achieved in different sectors through specific measures. Other countries have implemented specific procedures to generally protect the personally identifiable information of their residents. What's most interesting is that American privacy regulations stem from consumer protection legislation aimed at discouraging harmful practices, while other countries only apply policies like GDPR to maintain compliance and commerce acts during their upward trajectory, and user privacy, as a principle, has only recently emerged in national legislation.
A cornerstone in safeguarding users' privacy in the US was reached in 2013 when, following numerous disclosures of government surveillance, authorities drew a line limiting the extent of state monitoring and the procedures that must be followed. The law was criticized as a limitation of state powers but seen by the public as a guarantee of human rights in the process of preventing terrorist attacks and illegal spying operations by foreign powers.
Mexico, for example, has personal protection as a fundamental guarantee in its Constitution, based on the national law on personal data, governed by the same principles as those outlined in GDPR, as Mexico has signed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations in 1948 to implement and ensure human rights protection. Regarding personal privacy from a European perspective, in 1997, Mexico adopted Directive 95/46/EC on data protection as part of the Economic Partnership Agreement, Political Coordination, and Cooperation with the EU and later in 2018 adopted the Strasbourg Convention on the protection of individuals with regard to automatic processing of personal data from 1981 and the Additional Protocol on supervisory authorities and cross-border data flows. Despite accessing the legal framework, authorities are criticized for failing to implement effective measures to guarantee privacy as a human right, lacking a successful toolkit for public control over governmental surveillance.
It's so much change happening right now, from different perspective and angles. It's a total shift.
The legal framework guarantees privacy, but to implement what the principles dictate, technology must meet the imposed standards, and knowledge should become a strategic plan. Knowledge is acquired, but in general terms. What policy should bring to the forefront is the attraction of structural investments in digital literacy, educational programs for youth in schools, and adult-focused training to obtain effective means of protecting digital privacy.
Thanks for reading!
With respect,
Zpek