Brett - Thank you for posting to the list your perspective on privacy as a human right. It's so important that we don't overlook or underestimate the global dimensions of privacy, especially considering that many countries include it as a constitutional right, too.
For Mozilla, our Manifesto (https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/about/manifesto/) is clear on this point: Principle 4: Individuals' security and privacy on the Internet are fundamental and must not be treated as optional. Our work on privacy and data safety falls into at least four groups within Mozilla: * Privacy & Data Safety (https://wiki.mozilla.org/Privacy) * Public Policy (https://wiki.mozilla.org/Netpolicy) * Advocacy (site coming soon) * Security Engineering (https://wiki.mozilla.org/SecurityEngineering) Many other groups and individuals here are keen to work on privacy-related initiatives from UX to IT to Engagement to People. You'd be welcome to participate in one or more of these groups. Regards, Alex On Wednesday, March 12, 2014 6:56:23 PM UTC-7, Brett Zamir wrote: > In the context of public-awareness raising for privacy issues, I wanted to > offer two thoughts: one, that it might be helpful in such campaigns to bring > out the fact that privacy is an actual universal "human right", that we have > a specific world-encompassing document establishing this right, and two, that > there are even some budding international mechanisms for individuals to > enforce that right. > > > > On the first point, I feel that people might gain appreciation for the fact > that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a document drafted by the > U.N. (in a committee chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt: > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Declaration_of_Human_Rights#Creation_and_drafting > ) and not rejected by any country of the time, makes specific mention of > privacy: > > > > Article 12. > > > > No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, > family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and > reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such > interference or attacks. > > > > (at http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml ) > > > > This is adopted though reworded in the International Covenant on Civil and > Political Rights, one of two key international human rights covenants > supporting the Universal Declaration, and ratified by the large majority of > countries of the world: > > > > Article 17 > > > > 1. No one shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with > his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to unlawful attacks on his > honour and reputation. > > > > 2. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such > interference or attacks. > > > > (at http://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/CCPR.aspx ) > > > > (Of course, when "lawful" interference should be allowed is and will be a > source of endless debate, but the point is that there is an aspiration here > for privacy to be a right for all under normal circumstances.) > > > > This is not restricted to "data privacy", of course, but especially given its > mention of "correspondence", I think this could easily be understood as > including privacy of internet communications and data, which is our modern > form of correspondence (even if an Internet Bill of Rights per > https://webwewant.org/ could make this more explicit). > > > > Too often, people are left to thinking that only their country has important > values, or only a subset of countries, but this inspired document is one we > can all reference and emphasize, as it belongs to all of us, no matter our > country of origin. In so doing, it also won't hurt for us to see more > tangibly that we're all in this together (just as we feel a higher sense of > solidarity when people from different states or provinces in our respective > countries speak of our shared national constitution). Yes, each country has > its own values (just as each state in our union has its own values), but > certain values are, as shown by this document, held as universal and it > helps, I think, for this to be drawn out in advocacy campaigns such as > Mozilla conducts. > > > > But beyond the important arena of appealing to global values and rights, I > wanted to suggest Mozilla also consider highlighting that there is even a > supplementary protocol (regrettably, an optional one, and one allowing > "reservations" though a fairly widely adopted one based on the map at > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:ICCPR-OP1-members.png ) associated with > the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which allows > individuals to make appeals toward violation of their international (civil > and political) human rights, including privacy rights: > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Optional_Protocol_to_the_International_Covenant_on_Civil_and_Political_Rights > . > > > > Beyond these thoughts on privacy (not sure the right forum to suggest this), > I also wanted to suggest Mozilla consider doing similarly in its big picture > discussions on freedom to use the internet or participate in open source, > given the existence of explicit universal human rights pertaining to > participation in the cultural life of the community, enjoyment of the arts, > sharing in scientific advancement, as well as the protection of the moral and > material interests of one's scientific, literary, or artistic productions. _______________________________________________ dev-privacy mailing list [email protected] https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/dev-privacy
