“The computer said it was OK!”: human rights (and other) implications of manipulative design
By Dr. Silvia De Conca
Credit: Silva de Conca
This is Part 2 of a two-part series.
On November 19th, 2021, the “Human Rights in the Digital Age” working group of the NNHRR held a multidisciplinary workshop on the legal implications of ‘online manipulation’. This is Part 2 of a two-part series.
Manipulative design, autonomy, and human rights.
By turning individuals into means to an end, manipulative design infringes on their dignity, because it affects their intrinsic value as human beings. Manipulative design is a constraint to individual autonomy, whether it is used for ‘paternalistic’ policymaking or by companies for profit. More...
“The computer said it was OK!”: human rights (and other) implications of manipulative design
By Dr. Silvia De Conca
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Credit: Silvia de Conca
This is Part 1 of a two-part series.
On November 19th, 2021, the “Human Rights in the Digital Age” working group of the NNHRR held a multidisciplinary workshop on the legal implications of ‘online manipulation’. The term ‘online manipulation’ indicates online services designed to manipulate individuals into clicking, buying, or sharing more (hereinafter also manipulative design). More...
The Right to an Effective Remedy in International Personal Data Transfers
By Dr Irene Kamara (Tilburg University & Vrije Universiteit Brussel), Prof. Dr. Eleni Kosta (Tilburg University), Prof. Dr. Sofia Ranchordas (University of Groningen & Luiss Guido Carli University)

In July 2020, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU or the Court) annulled for the second time a Commission Decision which found that the US offers a (partially) adequate level of protection to individuals whose data are transferred to that country. The Commission Decision was based on the so-called Privacy Shield, a US-EU bilateral agreement providing companies a mechanism to comply with legal requirements for the transfer of personal data. More...
Automated Content Moderation, Hate Speech and Human Rights
Within the framework of a multi-stakeholder, cross-border, EU project entitled SHERPA ‘Shaping the Ethical Dimensions of Smart Information Systems (SIS)’, a project led by the University of De Montfort (UK), a deliverable was developed on 11 specific challenges that SIS (the combination of artificial intelligence and big data analytics) raise with regards to human rights. This blog post seeks to focus on one of those challenges, namely ‘Democracy, Freedom of Thought, Control and Manipulation.’ More...

Source: Pixabay
Manvi Khanna
National Law University Odisha, Cuttack
https://www.linkedin.com/in/manvi-khanna-6a960815b/
In the midst of the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, the surge in cases of gender-based violence globally is another shadow pandemic and public health emergency that requires intervention by governments across the world. Nationwide lockdowns imposed as a containment measure have forced people to stay indoors for their safety as well as that of others. Unfortunately, homes are not the safest places for victims of domestic violence. Every third woman in the world has been physically abused by her spouse/partner. As per the recent statistics, during the 68 day period of lockdown (25 March 2020 to 31 May 2020) in India, 1477 complaints were made to the National Commission for Women, which is the highest number of complaints recorded during the similar time period in the last ten years, keeping in mind the fact that around 77% of the cases in the country go unreported.
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Source: iXimus - Pixabay
Ritwik Prakash Srivastava
National Law Institute University, Bhopal, India
ritwiksrivastava.ug@nliu.ac.in
In the wake of COVID-19, the Indian government launched and mandated the use of a contact-tracing application, Aarogya Setu (smart phone application). The Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, in his address to the nation on 14 April 2020, urged the citizens to download the application to supplement the State’s struggle against the contagion. What started as a voluntary step, was first made mandatory for employees of the public and even the private sector, and then for entire districts. Failure to do so gives rise to a criminal penalty.
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