“The time is ripe for a fundamental right to digital integrity”

On Monday, the Zurich Pirate Party will begin collecting signatures for a cantonal popular initiative. In an interview, Managing Director Monica Amgwerd explains how citizens’ rights must be strengthened in light of advancing digitalization and how the state must emancipate itself from powerful technology companies.

The interview

Ms Amgwerd, why does the Pirate Party now want to launch a cantonal people’s initiative for a fundamental right to digital integrity?
Monica Amgwerd: We are at a technological turning point: digitalization affects virtually all areas of life. Many of our daily actions now take place online and leave a data trail, even though we are often unaware of it. With increasing computing power and advances in AI, we are at a point where this data can be evaluated completely automatically.

As a society, we must act with foresight now so that we can reap the many benefits of digitalization while minimizing risks. Our goal is that digitalization serves people and is not used against the interests of the general population. The time is therefore ripe for a fundamental right to digital integrity.

Digital integrity sounds good. But what practical benefit does the Pirate Party hope to achieve if this is enshrined in the constitution?
The fundamental right to digital integrity and the rights arising from it give people a means to defend themselves against injustice. The legislator must respect and implement these new rights. This new fundamental right is a humanistic response to the paradigm shift of the digital age.

Florent Thouvenin, professor of information and communications law at the University of Zurich, spoke of a “diffuse unease about the new possibilities and power of Big Tech and the state.” How do you see that?
Concerns about the power of Big Tech and the state are confirmed by events such as the Cambridge Analytica scandal and data breaches at government agencies in Switzerland. These demonstrate the potential dangers of surveillance capitalism and state data collection to democracy. For the Pirate Party it is clear that there must be an obligation to minimize such potential dangers. The fundamental right to digital integrity ensures that all actors must design their activities or services in a responsible manner to guarantee people’s digital integrity.

However, the Swiss parliament decided in December 2023 that the federal constitution should not be expanded to include the right to digital integrity. A proposal by SP politician Samuel Bendahan (Vaud) was clearly rejected in the National Council.
We deeply regret this decision by Parliament. This shows that pressure through popular initiatives is necessary to protect the digital integrity of citizens.

Critical legal experts argue that the existing catalog of fundamental rights in the federal constitution is sufficient. How do you answer that?
There is neither a right to be forgotten nor a right to an offline life. There is also no right to information security or the right not to be judged by a machine. To date, Swiss people do not have the right not to be monitored, measured and analyzed. The right to protection against unauthorized use of data that affects digital life is also more extensive. The current catalog of fundamental rights does not cover all of this.

The initiative’s introductory text paints a pretty bleak picture of surveillance capitalism and a data-hungry state. What specific issues need to be addressed most urgently from the Pirate Party’s perspective?
Real prioritization is difficult, also because the problems are partly related, for example that states also work with Big Tech. The fact is: we as a party can barely keep up with all the surveillance laws, as well as the countless federal and private data breaches. What does exist is a lack of culture of care when dealing with people’s data. The most urgent thing is to install legal standards to guarantee this care and thus lay the foundation for a better future.

The initiative text states that the fundamental right must be derived, among other things, from the right “not to be judged by a machine”. How important is this AI aspect from the Pirate Party’s perspective?
Algorithms already make decisions in many areas of our lives. Requests are automatically processed and evaluated, preferences are guessed based on our behavior and the risk of crime is calculated. The problem is that these algorithms are not transparent and decisions are usually not even understood by the provider. One person must always remain the final authority. Our proposal for a right not to be judged by a machine would give people the opportunity to object to automated decision-making.

Your initiative also aims to tackle the problem of more and more organizations being hacked and personal data being leaked. How should the right to data security be realized or implemented?
We demand a right to information security. Information security means that the confidentiality, availability and integrity of the data are guaranteed. Once the initiative is accepted, citizens will have the right to take action against organizations that negligently violate these principles. Such as the Ministry of Justice in Zurich, which lost highly sensitive data such as psychiatric reports, or the company Xplain. A positive side effect is probably that digitalization is carried out more carefully. Namely, only if safety is guaranteed.

End-to-end encryption of keywords: There have long been attempts in the EU to weaken eavesdropping-proof digital communications. Does this danger also threaten here?
Yes, this danger also threatens Switzerland. The Intelligence Service Act (NDG) and cantonal police laws provide for the use of state Trojans, and the federal government last year tried to destroy the digital secrecy of correspondence through regulations. Thanks to the great outcry from Threema, Proton, the Federal Data Protection Agency (FDPIC) and, last but not least, us pirates, we have been able to fend off this attack on secure encryption for the time being.

According to experts, such a fundamental right could give citizens the illusion of protection, even if the real threat to their freedoms depends on external factors that are difficult to control, such as multinational technology companies. How do you see that?
When developing, planning or using technologies, those responsible must already think about humane implementation. The pros and cons must be weighed and compared and ethical aspects must not be overlooked.

The initiative must ensure that the state emancipates itself from technology companies. The federal government recently had to admit that it had maneuvered itself into a dependency from which it would be difficult to escape. Quote: “In fact, the federal government is now dependent on Office products from the manufacturer Microsoft.”

The use of open source software is the key to a secure and sovereign digital Switzerland. Our demands for a right to information security and the right not to be monitored, measured and analyzed will accelerate this emancipation process.

To create the popular initiative in Zurich and ensure that voters can vote on it, only a few thousand signatures are needed, which should be child’s play, right?
The Canton of Zurich has feasible conditions for initiatives, which also suits us. But 6000 votes in 6 months is still an achievement for our team and we are happy with all the support. If you’re interested, let us know!

How do you estimate the chances that the initiative will actually be accepted by voters?
Of course you never know, but we have reason to believe that the odds are not bad. I say this because a very similar initiative has already been voted on in Geneva and approved by voters with an overwhelming result of 94 percent in favor.

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And now you!

What do you think are the biggest social challenges for Switzerland as digitalization progresses? Where is more regulation needed?

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