Vecam

Updating and adopting the International People's Charter of Communication

2002-10-04T13:47:50Z

Orientation of proposal

By drawing inspiration from the people's charter of communication (cf. http://www.pccharter.net/), the aim is to make enforceable as law a text covering questions on the right to knowledge, the right to linguistic diversity and the right to respect for private life.

Context

All the rights and duties related to the advent of the information era should be recognised by law. Either there is a legal vacuum, or when laws do exist they vary considerably from one country to another. Community networks active in ICTs should work to get such charters adopted in their countries and by international organisations.

Guarantee decent working conditions and prohibit practices that violate employees' rights

2002-10-04T13:46:23Z

Orientation of proposal

In every country, and at European level, legislations should be set up aimed at :
to guarantee that decent working conditions are maintained, by taking into account the changes brought about by computerisation, Internet use, the development of e-commerce, the spread of telecommuting, etc. ;
and prohibit all monitoring of employees without their knowledge and any direct or indirect practice aimed at collecting information on their behaviour and centres of interest (e.g. reading employees' email) ;

 Extending the principle of secrecy related to private correspondence to employees' email.

Context

The massive introduction of ICTs in production activities should not be used as a pretext for setting back the social clock. In particular, legislation such as that adopted in the United Kingdom in 2000 which permits employers to read the employees' email should be declared contrary to the European Convention of Basic Human Rights (article 8. The right to respect of private and family life).

Protecting and extending union freedom and rights on the Internet

2002-10-04T13:44:55Z

Orientation of proposal

The different rights accorded by national legislations to unions should be extended to the Internet. Among other things, this comprises :
the right to use electronic means to diffuse information and communications, organise union meetings, permit discussion within unions (forums, lists, etc.) ;
the right for unions to have their own space on the Internet and Intranet sites, if any, of the company in which they represent the workers ;

 That companies make available in all union premises a workstation equipped with at least office management and communication software and a connection to the network.

Context

Although unions must make an effort themselves to adapt the objectives and the forms of their combats in the information era (cf. above), legislation on the matter should not hinder this adaptation and information technologies must not be used as a pretext for restricting union rights.

Authorisation of encryption, a framework for connection data and a limit for its conservation, a framework for advertising

2002-10-04T13:43:36Z

Orientation of proposal

Freedom for encryption should be total in a country where it is still subject to restrictions, notwithstanding any invocation of "reasons of state". Furthermore, although certain data concerning connection need conserving for invoicing and police investigation, for example, this conservation should be :
limited in time, one month seems a reasonable period ;
totally forbidden for other types of data. For example, data indicating the consultation of a site involving the person's private life could be used for illegal purposes (profiling, collection of sensitive data) and so should not be conserved, as opposed to data connection to the Internet itself ;
accompanied with an obligation by access providers to warn users of the use made of the data they collect and the duration of is conservation. They must also request agreement from users for any utilisation of such data, especially for profit. Lastly, advertising on the Internet should be regulated :
on the one hand, as with other media, the distinction between editorial and advertising content should be perfectly clear ;
on the other hand, aggressive and eventually costly (since they prolong consultation) advertising on the Net should be limited (for example, pop-ups) ;

 The consumer should be able to give their prior consent to the reception of unsolicited commercial messages.

Context

The Internet has the potential to violate individual rights, especially violation of private life and misuse of personal data. This can be explained technically by :
the possibilities of archiving and processing masses of personal data, made even easier by network computer processing ;
the possibility for current navigation tools to establish consumer profiles easily, by using cookies of which the user is sometimes totally unaware ;
the possibility of sending unsolicited spam that floods thousands of mail boxes with advertising at low cost since part of the latter is paid for by the recipient.

The first solution to these risks to personal data is encryption, but protection should go even further to prevent every Internet user from becoming a traceable marketing target subject to commercial harassment against their will.

Apart from elementary individual rights, what is at stake is a choice of society : the Net economy is not a justification for everything.

Limit the responsibility of hosts at national and international level

2002-10-04T13:39:55Z

Orientation of proposal

The civil and penal liability of access, transmission, storage and hosting providers should be limited to the case where they have effectively participated in the creation of the content hosted and, by consequence, become publishers/authors or co-publishers/co-authors.

Context

The primary characteristic of the Internet is that it permits everyone to express themselves publicly to everyone else, without an intermediary. Whereas the press and traditional audiovisual companies (radio, television) remain subject to the legislation concerning them, whether or not they transmit over the Internet or not, this is not so for individuals, and non-profit organisations and bodies, which will never have the same financial resources or the same impact on the public.

Any other standpoint would cause the intermediary to act as censor, thereby implying that freedom of expression be subject to the arbitrary judgement of a person or structure of either a non-commercial or commercial nature. This would amount to a violation of individual rights. Also, it is technically impossible to permanently monitor the many thousands of Web pages for which they act as intermediary.

Education and training for the protection of personal data

2002-10-04T13:38:24Z

Orientation of proposal Awareness and education campaigns and training on the protection of personal information should be an integral part of national strategies and policies and be included in civic education in the information era. - 5/ ICTs, rights and public freedom

Protection of personal information

2002-10-04T13:37:24Z

Orientation of proposal

The confidentiality of data and the protection of individual (citizens and consumers) and community rights should be guaranteed by laws and regulations.

Standards for consumer protection regarding e-commerce should conform to the following main principles.

1. Equivalence and harmonisation : e-commerce should not be treated differently to other kinds of commerce ; e-commerce consumers should not be given less protection than other types of commerce ; laws to protect the consumer should be revised to include e-commerce and be harmonised at national level.

2. Transparency and efficiency : consumers and companies should have easy and fast access to standards, which, to be effective, should be fair, realisable in practice and easily applicable.

3. Conformity at national level : the global dimension of the Internet requires coherence and harmony between legislation at international level. The orientations and standards established by the OECD and other international bodies should not interfere with laws enacted at national level.