- Constitutional amendment: Article 10(2) should explicitly include the right to digital integrity.
- Definition: Digital integrity includes the protection of digital life and personal data resulting from online activities.
- Right of control: Every person should be able to request access to collected and linked digital data and understand what data is being collected.
- Broad support: The demand is part of a popular initiative and has been voiced with varying degrees of cantonal and political support.
Submitted text
Article 10 Paragraph 2 of the Federal Constitution shall be amended as follows:
2 Everyone has the right to personal freedom, in particular to physical, mental and digital integrity and to freedom of movement.
Justification
The development of society, and in particular the mass introduction of new technologies, raises new questions that were not, or hardly, asked at the time our constitution was adopted. The development of the Internet, social networks, Big Data, artificial intelligence and the globalization and concentration of technologies create opportunities and added value, but also pose new threats to the integrity of the population.
Already in 2018, the French-speaking Association of Data Protection Authorities (AFAPDP) underlined in a resolution the importance of guaranteeing this right for the protection of personal data and that it was necessary for the population to be able to control this data.
The digital integrity will be by protecting the digital life of the person ensured. Our digital identity essentially consists of our traces on the Internet, especially from the data collected in the course of our activities on the Internet. It is primarily about personal data and, in particular, how that data is linked. The leading players in this field have already taken some steps in this direction, either by regulation or voluntarily, but the right to digital integrity is insufficiently protected today and there is no constitutional basis for this right.
The right to control digital identity is therefore The right to understand and know what data of our digital lives is collected, whether that is information that we explicitly share or information that is compiled or calculated by sites that we visit or by third parties based on our activities. So the point is that a Right to access the data is guaranteed, with which any person can claim the guarantee of this inspection.
The demand that digital integrity be included in the constitution is also part of the popular initiative of a civil society group (“Digital Sovereignty”). This demand has also been voiced in several cantons and by people of different political persuasions.