A post-election analysis of UK-US digital trade
Friday 04 December 2020 16:00 GMT
If you missed it, watch the recording on Youtube!
The incoming UK-US trade deal’s power to shape British life is vast. From agriculture and the environment to the NHS and workers’ rights, there is little the secretive agreement won’t touch – including our digital rights.
Privacy protections in the UK are far stronger than in the US, but this trade deal does not guarantee our rights will be properly enforced from abroad. Back room negotiations with little parliamentary oversight are opening the door to lightly regulated data transfers, making it nearly impossible to know whether your personal data is safe, if it is lost or stolen, or whether data brokers are obtaining, buying or selling your data.
With the smoke finally clearing from an explosive US presidential election, the time has come to consider its consequences for digital trade. Open Rights Group is convening an expert panel from across the political spectrum to ask:
- What does the incoming Biden administration mean for UK-US digital trade?
- What controls will UK citizens and residents have over their personal data once it transfers to the US?
- Will UK courts retain the power to protect your data from abusive US companies?
- What can you or your MP do to ensure the UK doesn’t trade away our digital rights?
SPEAKERS
Damian Collins is a Conservative MP for Folkestone and Hythe and served as chair of the House of Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee from 2016 – 2019 where he led inquiries into disinformation, fake news and addictive and immersive technologies.
Cory Doctorow is a Canadian-British author, digital rights activist and journalist. He works for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, is a MIT Media Lab Research Affiliate, a Visiting Professor of Computer Science at Open University, and a founding member of ORG in 2005.
Anna Fielder is the President of European Digital Rights (EDRi), which is the largest European network defending online rights and freedoms. Anna is also Chair Emeritus of Privacy International and Senior Policy Advisor to the Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue (TACD).
Moderated by Open Rights Group Executive Director Jim Killock.