At the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), a diverse group of stakeholders has agreed to launch a Dynamic Coalition on Privacy, which will address emerging issues of internet privacy protection such as digital identities, the link between privacy and development, and the importance of privacy and anonymity for freedom of expression. It will initiate an open process to further develop and clarify the public policy aspects of privacy in internet governance in the perspective of the next IGF meeting in Brazil in 2007. The group will use online collaboration tools as well as facilitate meetings at related events all over the world throughout the year.
Participants in Athens in particular agreed that there is a need for greater public participation in technical and legal standardizations that have a global public policy impact on privacy. They also emphasised that it is important to better include perspectives from developing countries in these processes.
One of the main outcomes of the IGF is the creation of "dynamic coalitions"
or multi-stakeholder groups working together on a common issue over a multi-year process. The Dynamic Coalition on Privacy is a direct outcome of two privacy workshops at the IGF on 31 October, co-organized by the Information Systems Group at the LSE and the University of Bremen . It also reflects discussions held during the IGF main session on cyber-security as well as the IGF workshops on "Human Rights and the Internet" organized by the Council of Europe and on an "Internet Bill of Rights" organized by the Government of Italy together with IP Justice and the Internet Society of Italy. It builds upon several months of multi-stakeholder collaboration in the run-up to the UN meeting in Athens.
Start-up actors include representatives from 37 non-governmental and governmental organisations and companies. Metamorphosis Foundation is among them.
The coalition is open to interested parties and will start a global process to engage more stakeholders over the next year. Therefore, the start-up actors call for people interested in or willing to join the work of this coalition and for recommending other stakeholders that should be contacted.
The French government has offered to host a follow-up meeting in Paris in early 2007.
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