Understanding Your Digital Rights with Lucie Krahulcova

Digital Citizen

Have you ever wondered if you have privacy rights online? As the digital world and the real world become more and more intertwined, the importance of protecting privacy continues to expand.

Lucie Krahulcova, Executive Director at Digital Rights Watch, talks to Ricardo about privacy laws around the world and how to speak up to demand better digital privacy.

Lucie says that the conversation around digital rights and human rights is more important than ever. In this episode, learn about privacy legislation around the globe. We'll also discuss corporate privacy issues, like how some companies model their business around collecting your personal information. But most importantly, we'll tell you what to do to reclaim your digital rights such as choosing products and services that put you first and protect you.

Stay tuned to the end of the episode to hear Helen and Rik talk about the parts of the internet that they love the most and to hear Rik's takeaways.

▶️ Guest Interview - Lucie Krahulcova

• Follow @nomadiclucie on Twitter
• Follow @DRWaus on Twitter
• Visit: https://digitalrightswatch.org.au
• Join the campaign for digital rights cities: https://digitalrightswatch.org.au/cities/

🗣️ Discussion Points

• Lucie is a digital rights advocate who has been working in the space for years now. She is the Executive Director of Digital Rights Watch. The central mission of Digital Rights Watch is to ensure fairness and freedom in the digital space.
• Just having a list of digital rights is not enough to ensure those rights are respected. Unless personal data rights are enshrined in law, many corporations have no incentive to respect your privacy.
• GDPR is one such set of data privacy laws, and while it is a uniquely European approach, it has turned out to be both functional and practical for users. GDPR affected many tech companies globally.
• It’s impossible to build a digital rights framework without an existing human rights framework to work from. Globally, if we could agree to go along with the human rights that have already been established we would already have more privacy rights online.
• The amount of data that is collected about the average person is astounding. Many tech companies' entire business model is built around using that data to serve targeted advertising or reselling that data to other companies.
• The cookie pop-ups that are now more common are an example of getting into a contractual relationship with a website you are visiting. When it comes to digital rights, we have to ask, is it reasonable for the average person to have to commit to those kinds of relationships in the normal course of using the internet?
• There is no point in your experience in a city where you are not generating data somewhere, even if it’s just traffic volume. People often forget to have conversations with their local representatives about their privacy rights.
• Find the digital rights people in your area and have a conversation with them to learn what you can do to protect your digital rights.
• Most people are surrounded by the internet all the time. With the pandemic, people having connected devices in every room in their house has been normalized. As a whole, we have to be more conscious about how we interact with technology.
• The internet is a double-edged sword. It creates incredible access to resources, information, and community, alongside the negative aspects of losing our privacy. The community you have on the internet is a powerful tool to mobilize people and create real change in the world.

⭐ Takeaways

• You should care about your data privacy, online and in real life. Your digital rights are your human rights in the digital realm. You need to be aware of what data is being collected about you and how it’s being used.
• It's important to talk to your local governments and tell them that your digital rights matter to you.
• Share information with your friends and family and talk to them about their digital rights and how the choices that they're making online affect their rights.
• The digital privacy ship has not sailed. There is still time to reclaim your digital rights, and you have the power to get in control of the data being collected about you.

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