The Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) signed a funding partnership to support Ecopia Tech Corporation (Ecopia) develop a digital map of sub-Saharan Africa that includes an estimated 342 million buildings, 3.8 million linear kilometers of roads, and 582 million hectares of forests. “This project will not only showcase Canadian technology on the world stage, but [...]

Inter-American Committee Against Terrorism (CICTE) of the Organization of American States (OAS) conducted regional consultations on the work of the UN Group of Governmental Experts (GGE). Consultations involved representatives of OAS member States, as well as civil society, academia and the business sector, and were attended by both Ambassador Guilherme Patriota of Brazil, Chair of [...]

A new digital rights bill underwent its first reading at Nigeria’s House of Representatives on 16 July 2019. The reading comes following consultations with stakeholders after President Buhari declined to assent to a similar bill earlier in the year. The Paradigm Initiative, one of the civil society organisations that had advocated for the first bill, [...]

A new project to reform e-waste has been launched in Lagos, Nigeria, with an aim to put an end to inadequate management of electronic waste. Backed by Global Environmental Facility (GEF) and UN Environment, the 15 $-initiative has brought together stakeholders from the government, the private sector and civil society. While promoting the recycling of [...]

US civil society organisation, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), published a letter sent to the US Congress sub-committee on Manufacturing, Trade, and Consumer Protection, concerning privacy and security of Internet of things (IoT) devices. The letter was sent prior to a hearing of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, arguing that the commission must do [...]

Forty-seven tech companies, civil society organisations and international experts - including Apple, Microsoft, Google, WhatsApp, Human Rights Watch, ISOC and Privacy International - jointly raised concerns over the idea, dubbed ‘Ghost proposal’, raised by the UK intelligence agency GCHQ to eavesdrop on encrypted communications. In an open letter to GCHQ published on Lawfare, they explained [...]

The World Economic Forum announced the formation of six Global Fourth Industrial Revolution councils to work on new technology policy guidance. The councils will aim to help policy makers to regulate artificial intelligence, autonomous mobility, blockchain, drones, Internet of Things, and precision medicine. The participants of the boards will be leaders from the public and [...]

Transform Africa Summit 2019 was convened under the theme ‘boosting Africa's digital economy’ in Kigali, Rwanda, from 7-10 May 2019 to promote sustainable socio-economic development in Africa through improving access to broadband internet and use of information and communication technology (ICT). The Summit was attended by 4000 participants from the government, private sector, international organisations, [...]

The White House has announced that although it supported the Christchurch Call against the spread of violent and extremist content online it ‘was not in a position to join the endorsement’. However, the US ‘will continue to support the overall goals reflected in the Call [...] to engage governments, industry, and civil society to counter [...]

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) was approached by four US Senators alongside a coalition of 19 civil society organisations (headed by Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, and the Center for Digital Democracy) to launch an investigation into whether Amazon Echo Dot Kids Edition violates the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). The coalition presented the [...]