A close adviser to the Vatican and a digital law lawyer believe that governments like that of Quebec would benefit from diverting the data collected for commercial purposes by the GAFAM to promote its use in favor of the public good. The report they publish in Montreal on Wednesday even proposes a legal framework to avoid the stranglehold of technological giants on the future of digital technology.
The way Facebook and the other members of GAFAM collect and then use the data produced by their billions of users has created a mistrust of digital that the Human Technology Foundation wants to combat through what it calls “data altruism”. Éric Salobir, its founder and president, is a French priest with degrees in theology and philosophy and also special adviser to the Vatican on digital data.
He and the lawyer Grimaud Valat were invited by the Quebec center for research in artificial intelligence Mila to come and present a legal framework that they would like to see adopted in particular by the European Union and Canada and which would promote a “more humane” use. digital data.
Reduce public mistrust
“Mistrust of digital data and technological giants has forced states to better protect this data,” said Éric Salobir in an interview with the Homework. “However, just wanting to protect the data, we neglected to favor a use that would be beneficial to the general interest. Among other things, the Foundation recommends that the authorities oblige manufacturers of connected devices to hand over all the data they produce to their users. “People have no idea of the magnitude of the data they produce every day,” explains M Grimaud Valat. “Already, having control over this data would be a first step to then allow users to give access to it to others in complete confidence. »
These “others” could be research centers in the medical sector, for example. Or university researchers in artificial intelligence. The important thing is that it is clearly understood that this model should benefit the community, say the two European experts. “You have to create a framework of trust around the data, otherwise even research projects that would be good for society will fail. »
The GAFAMs have taken advantage of a lack of legal framework for digital technology over the past 20 years to impose their virtual monopoly on the sector. The Human Technology Foundation urges governments to act if they don’t want to see a new monopoly arise from the emergence of upcoming technologies like blockchain (blockchain) or even Web3.
These technologies promise to “completely decentralize digital,” but could also lead to the creation of new monopolies that will once again evade existing laws, they fear. Expected to be the next big evolution of the Internet, Web3 aims to replace centralized web platforms like Facebook, Google and Amazon with services based on algorithms and automated systems.
At a time when digital identity is increasingly important for individuals, this observation raises “ethical questions that no longer fall under science fiction,” says Éric Salobir. The creation of a clear legal and international framework would resolve many of these issues by promoting the positive social effects of future technologies.