The Gadient Expert Group on the Future of Data Processing and Data Security has published its report, dated August 17, 2018, on the future of data processing and data security. Report presented. The group of experts was formed in implementation of the Rechsteiner motion (13.3841) and had the task of answering the following questions:
1. how to assess the technological and political developments in the field of data processing?
2 What do these developments mean for the Swiss economy, society and the state?
3) How should the current legal framework be assessed in the light of this development?
4 What are the recommendations for Switzerland? At the national level? With a view to possible initiatives at the international level?
In its approximately 190-page report (including appendices), the commission came up with 51 recommendations for the attention of the federal government, divided into the areas:
- Information Security
- Business to Consumer (B2C)
- Business to Business (B2B)
- B2C and B2B cross-cutting areas of analysis: Data access, data ownership and new liability issues.
- Government to Citizen/Business (G2Ci/B)
- Blockchain
- Digital public education, capacity building, user co-creation, and research.
- Digital transformation and ethics
Many of the issues raised in the report will now also be discussed during the deliberations on the FADP, including the resources of supervisory authorities (Recommendation 10), data protection-compliant default settings (Recommendation 12), compulsory licenses for factual data (Recommendation 20), the right to portability of personal or factual data (Recommendation 21/22), or rights to data (Recommendation 23). The majority of the recommendations, however, merely encourage the federal government to conduct further audits.
The Federal Council has instructed DETEC to analyze the report by mid-2019 and clarify how to proceed, subject to urgent recommendations.