THE INSTITUTE FOR ACCOUNTABILITY
IN THE DIGITAL AGE (I4ADA)
INTRODUCTION
Technology changes the world at a fast pace. On August 6th 1991 the internet became publicly available through the World Wide Web. A new technology which would fundamentally change the world as we then knew it. Today we see over 3.8 billion users or just over 50% of the world’s population; a number which is growing every day.
Societies and individuals can benefit in all manner of ways through access to knowledge, people and organizations on a local and global level. More than that, digital has become a must-have, for people, society and the economy. Indeed, digital technology fosters innovation. Online platforms, e commerce, social media, artificial intelligence, data analytics, robotics and the internet of things (IoT) are further expediting this process by hyper-connecting individuals, organizations, communities, societies and data, with tens of billions of objects and entities.
Unfortunately, the Internet is not immune to evil. Breaches of norms and values are also occurring in the online and cyber worlds, ranging from fraud, identity theft, bullying and other forms of personal harassment or exploitation through to malign social engineering, phishing and hacking attacks which can threaten key networks and even entire nations. Fairness, transparency and accountability dictate that any victim, – whether individual, organization, society, nation or even democracy itself – which suffers from these issues should be able to address those responsible and to secure meaningful, effective redress. However, we are in a position today, in this Digital Age, where ongoing technological developments have outstripped our policy-making capacity, standards-setting and legal frameworks.
The Institute for Accountability in the Digital Age (I4ADA) was founded with the mission to ensure that those issues and concerns do not undermine the Internet’s potential for increasing access to knowledge, spreading global tolerance and understanding, and promoting sustainable prosperity
I4ADA, in pursuit of its mission of helping the world derive maximum benefit from the internet, is dedicated to helping create a fair and balanced framework of best practice and, where necessary, regulation.
I4ADA will pursue its objectives by building ongoing dialogue, both structured and informal, among participants in the internet environment. By building and maintaining a network at national and international level bringing together stakeholders and organizing activities, meetings and congresses to highlight, support and facilitate accountability nationally and internationally. These stakeholders represent participants from civil society, academia, the business technology community, lawyers and policy-makers.
GOVERNANCE
The I4ADA is established as a non-profit foundation under Dutch law. It is governed by its ‘Code of Rules’ and the I4ADA Board of Directors’ Code of Conduct. The I4ADA structure reflects the principle of transparent leadership and control, while ensuring openness, participation and equality for business and associates members, who support the I4ADA financially.
The Hague Charter for Accountability in the Digital Age
The ‘The Hague Charter for Accountability in the Digital Age‘ (HCADA) were drafted by the Institute for Accountability in the Digital Age (I4ADA) in collaboration with UNESCO and the city of The Hague to offer a guideline and reference for future discussions on Accountability in the Digital Age. The HCADA may form the basis for the development of instruments on regional, national and international level to uphold Accountability in the Digital Age. I4ADA assumes that adopting the principles will be done on a voluntary basis.
On Friday June 1st 2018 the I4ADA organized the first public consultation of these concept HCADA with the delegates of the Summit. The aim was to assess if these concept HCADA would offer value to the global discussion on Accountability in the Digital Age. The overall assessment of the delegates was that a set of principles would indeed support this discussion.
The feedback given during the Summit and the subsequent offline feedback and suggestions provided after the Summit has resulted in a first version of the HCADA.
Please follow the link to the pdf of version 1.0 of the HCADA.
The I4ADA, as the custodians of the HCADA, has now taken upon itself to organize further public consultations on version 1.0 of the text. The objective of the public consultations is to gain feedback on the text. We invite the global multi-stakeholder community to provide their input. In addition to the online feedback option, I4ADA will organize face to face public consultations. The feedback and results of the public consultations will be posted on this website.
- Please, email feedback to: HCADA@i4ada.org
The Hague Summit for
Accountability
in the
Digital Age
The people behind I4ADA
Institute for Accountability in the Digital Age (I4ADA)
Postal address I4ADA
Emmalaan 21
1075 AT Amsterdam
The Netherlands
E: contact@i4ada.org
P: +31 (0)70 3184840
Contact
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