VIDEO: Threats to Democracy

SYNOPSIS AND KEY POINT 
Jacob Kohnstamm, politician and data regulator, makes the powerful case that the workings of democracy are threatened if micro-targeting, algorithms and other data management tools are allowed to be used without restraint in the political system. If inferences are drawn about political preferences or individuals are placed in a bubble: “There is no more freedom of choice. Trust and confidence risk being undermined. Democracy is at stake.” With examples from social security and railway ticketing, he also argues that public administrations must always treat people as individuals and not collect or use excessive information. “Government in any country has all the personal data to play with. We are obliged to give our data to government. The individual is at stake. The individual is unique. You need to treat people as unique, not labelling them because of an algorithm.”

BIO
Jacob Kohnstamm is Chairman of the Jersey Data Protection Authority. 

He was previously the Data Protection Commissioner for the Netherlands and also served as Vice-Chairman of the Article 29 Data Protection Working Party for 6 years. This advisory body was composed of the chairs of all Data Protection Authorities in the European Union and preceded the European Data Protection Board. Prior to that, Jacob served as Vice-Chairman of the International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners for 4 years and hosted its conference in Amsterdam in 2015.

Jacob is also presently Chairman of the Dutch Euthanasia Review Committee, Chairman of the board of the Resistance Museum Amsterdam and Vice-Chairman of the board of the Dutch Refugee Foundation. Earlier in his career, Jacob was active as politician for nearly 25 years; holding posts as a member of the Dutch Parliament and as State Secretary for Home Affairs. This was after studying law and initially practising as a solicitor in Amsterdam, where he lives today.