Digital Freedom

What is the problem?
We are used to paying by card and ordering services through mobile phone applications. Digital communication with its citizens is increasingly preferred by the state as well. However, the digitization of our lives brings many risks. We are not calling for a return to trees, but we believe it is important to name and address these risks – before it is too late. These include, in particular, digital exclusion, the erosion of privacy, and the appropriate system with the vulnerability of the entire society.

• Digital exclusion
  It is a general description of the process in which all those who do not use new digital technologies find themselves on the margins of social life: either because they cannot use them (for example, a part of the elderly), because they cannot afford them (low-income groups), because that their parents will not buy them (children), or simply because they do not need them (everyone does not have a deep fryer at home). Digitization may thus overcome distances, but at the same time, it throws the deck over a certain part of society.

• Erosion of privacy
  After every digital transaction or cashless payment, an eternal digital footprint remains. However, we can never be sure who has or will have access to everything on this track. Privacy is being eroded every day, and it is only a matter of time before someone decides to use – or rather abuse – our personal data. Will it be an insurance company, an employer, or an executor? Or will a private detective, hacker or stalker get to them without quality support in the law?
  
  
• System vulnerability
  A bet on one digital card necessarily brings with it the overall vulnerability of the social system. At the same time, it is not just that in the event of a blackout of the Internet (or the spread of electricity), we would be left with nothing but helplessly watching the collapse. Advancing digitization also makes us more and more dependent on multinational giants. It is often a monopoly tied to a foreign legal order or state: for example, in the USA or China, as the Court of Justice of the EU has repeatedly stated, European data is not sufficiently protected against access by the local government authorities.

What do we suggest?
Due to the risks mentioned above, we advocate as much as possible to preserve the analogue solution in addition to the digital solutions. Digitization is a necessary process that can significantly improve the efficiency of processes in public administration as well as in the private sphere. In addition to the positives, it is necessary to remember the possible negative effects mentioned.

We, therefore, consider it necessary that the right to analogue solutions become part of strategic documents devoted to the digitalization of (not only) the Czech Republic and that these documents are then reflected in specific legislative proposals and practical solutions. We also consider the risks appropriate for the above to be mandatorily evaluated as part of the impact assessment during the preparation of new legislation.