Privacy and Surveillance

While the growth of the Internet is providing new opportunities for people to express opinions, communicate with others and participate in the governing process it also raises concerns about how best to ensure individual privacy. Collection, storage and processing of personal data can be of great benefits to citizens but it can also be abused. Building trust is one of the major challenges for building successfully online and e-commerce systems. One of the issues with the deployment of large data retention and tracking systems is ensuring the privacy of users. Policies need to be developed that ensure data protection, safeguard against unreasonable surveillance and cyber-crimes and the protection of human rights.