Policy Observatory
Ed Vaizey, the minister for culture and the digital economy, called for technology firms to “meet politicians halfway” on sensitive issues around privacy and internet safety, rather than react furiously with accusations that politicians do not understand the technology.
“So the prime minister, I think, is entitled to say: ‘We have a very sophisticated technology industry and encryption and so on… on the one hand I want to promote those industries and I want a successful technology economy, but I also have a duty as prime minister to keep our citizens as safe as possible. And we need to meet somewhere in the middle and talk about this’.”
Vaizey was speaking at a Big Digital Debate event in London organised by techUK, Computer Weekly and BCS – The Chartered Institute for IT, which aimed to give the three major parties a platform to set out their approach to digital issues.
The OECD Digital Economy Outlook 2015 explores recent developments in the digital economy. The OECD report finds that Internet "users are increasingly concerned, 64% of respondents are more concerned about privacy than they were a year ago" even as few countries include online privacy in national digital strategies.The OECD also warns that the "Internet of Things" will lead to the rise of autonomous machines. Civil society groups are planning to report to the OECD at the 2016 Ministerial Meeting on the Digital Economy.
Within its study entitled “Intellectual property and digital transformation of the economy”, the National Institute of Intellectual Property compiled 18 articles by researchers and experts, contributing to the national debate in the context of emerging problems posed by big data, the internet of things, algorithms, 3D printers. The institute also suggests some future directions.
Andrus Ansip speech at the Digital Assembly 2017 in Valletta on 15 June 2017.
As the Maltese presidency is coming to an end, those of us in the tech policy Brussels bubble spent two days in the beautiful city of La Valetta to attend the Digital Assembly, organised by the EU Commission.