François Chung, Ph.D.
Trends debate: technology and privacy

Trends debate: technology and privacy

Fujitsu project @Brussels, Belgium (2020). In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the development of contact tracing applications to help track and stop the spread of the coronavirus, Trends organized an online debate around technology and privacy entitled: “Does saying yes to technology mean saying no to ethics and privacy?”. The debate has been published as an article in Trends, which is a Flemish financial-economic magazine presenting analyses of current economic, political and social news.

Participants in this debate, who are experts in technology, ethics, privacy or legislation, are representing the following organizations:

  • Atos;
  • Everest Law;
  • Fujitsu;
  • Icapps;
  • Ministry of Privacy;
  • Nutanix;
  • Privaco;
  • SiriusLegal;
  • Universiteit Gent.

The main topics of discussion around this debate are as follows:

  • Should a contact tracing application be considered as a Pandora's box whose consequences cannot be estimated?
  • Is GDPR sufficient as a security mechanism? Or do we need to develop a clearer framework to regulate the potential misuse of technology?
  • To what extent does fragmentation, at political, geographic or economic level, hinder the efficiency of contact tracing applications requiring a global reach to be efficient?
  • Who decides what can be allowed with the possibilities offered by the technology? And how can we enforce that?
  • What is the correct mechanism to determine when a technology is needed? And when can a market be considered as ready?

As a Digital Business Analyst representing Fujitsu for this debate, I shared Fujitsu’s vision and values regarding technology and privacy in the context of the global Covid-19 pandemic, with topics such as working from home (technologies and benefits), extending the legal framework, including GDPR, to regulate Artificial Intelligence and building a human centric future with ethical technology. The debate has been published as an article in Trends on 13th August 2020.

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