In the midst of innovations delivering powerful advancements and growing public wariness towards cyber safety, many have forgotten to consider the correlation between technology and humanity. As new technologies dominate global markets, communities around the world need to rethink their understanding of human rights. By placing human rights at the core of this new wave of innovations, we can begin to utilize digital platforms for both dialogue and action, operating as citizens of this digital society.
However, emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence and drones have significantly expanded the mass collection of data and have huge privacy and human rights implications. While these tools have succeeded in revolutionizing the world, they have massively reduced privacy and exacerbated inequality. As new innovations continue to surface everyday, many of the impacts are yet unknown.
The fine line where technology and human rights intersect is an overlooked area of study that needs to be discussed. It is imperative to learn about the very opportunities technology has provided us to protect, investigate, and explore our human rights. We should understand our basic rights to privacy within the realm of technology. As we acknowledge the compromisation of our personal data, we can recognize our right to access, knowledge and security.
To learn more, feel free to explore the organizations and articles below that investigate this intersection of technology and human rights:
The Human Rights Investigations Lab at UC Berkeley
https://humanrights.berkeley.edu/programs-projects/tech/investigations-lab
Open Global Rights
https://www.openglobalrights.org/technology/
“Huduma Namba & Harambee: Kenya’s Biometric Identification Program Raises Concerns”
“The Children Building China”
https://therightsstuff.org/2020/03/20/the-children-building-china/
