The Top 3 Tech Policy Issues in 2020

In a few days we will witness the start of a new decade that brings with it the prospect of many exciting technological breakthroughs (eg. hyper automation, distributed cloud, etc.). However, the very same technologies will bring new, and ever-more thought provoking questions for governments around the world, which have started to pay more attention in recent years to the groundbreaking innovations coming out of the tech sector. This trend will continue in 2020 as governments will intensify their scrutiny on today's tech giants and impose sweeping new regulations that are likely to change the tech landscape for good. Therefore, what are the top 3 tech policy issues that will shape the coming year and decade?

1. Addressing climate change

Recent scientific research on climate change reveals that our planet is at a breaking point. 184 countries made a commitment five years ago in Paris at COP 21, to maintain global temperature rise below 2°C. However, this objective hasn't been met and was in fact too low in the first place, according to leading scientists who now advise setting a 1.5°C target. These dire predictions and the increasing public pressure concerning the climate crisis, manifested around the world in school strikes and street protests, make the issue of addressing climate change the top global priority of the coming decade.

For the tech sector, becoming more sustainable will become paramount given the increasing pressure companies face from consumers demanding them to address climate change. And these demands aren't that unreasonable considering the fact that the data centres tech giants have build around the world are among the today's largest users of electricity. Therefore, companies will need to move quickly to renewable sources of energy in order to respond to public concerns, as well as to governments that have made sustainability a key priority.

With some of the world’s largest revenues, tech companies can lead the way in addressing climate change by reducing their CO2 emissions and using big data and AI to come up with innovative solutions to the way businesses around the globe impact the environment. And while currently the biggest concern regarding climate change are CO2 emissions, there will be an increasing need to find alternative ways to better protect the biodiversity of our planet, reduce our waste and safeguard our water supplies. Even though tech companies alone can't save the planet, the challenge of preserving it will bring out the best in the tech sector.

2. Defending democracy

We live in a world in which technology has given people affordable access to information, and a place to voice their concerns and hold their leaders accountable. However, the same technology that has been used as a force for good supporting democratic processes, has also been used to spread fake news and manipulate people with increasing levels of precision. Therefore, in the coming decade, given the stagnating health of democracy around the globe, it will be more important than ever to maximise the added value technology brings when it comes to supporting democracy, and minimise its many pitfalls.

As we enter the 2020s, cyber-attacks against against civilians, governments and companies will intensify, and fake news will still play a major role in undermining political campaigns. Therefore, defending democracy in the digital sphere will be more important than ever, and tech companies will need to work more closely together with governments and politicians in order to protect them from digital threats and disinformation campaigns. Moreover, there is increasing support for the idea of making a Digital Geneva Convention a reality.

The biggest threat to democracy posed by technology, and in particular by social media, concerns its algorithms, which have created more information cocoons than ever before. When someone is exposed to information that supports their own beliefs, those beliefs can become more extreme, which can have dangerous consequences in today's digital world. This has profound implications for democracy, since even though information cocoons are not new, social media platforms make targeting people who are more likely to believe certain things, even if they prove to be false, easier than at any point in our recent history.

3. Protecting privacy

A decade ago privacy became a global concern, as the two biggest privacy controversies of our times were unfolding. In 2013, Edward Snowden shed light on how the U.S. government was essentially spying on its citizens and the citizens of its allies. Five years later in 2018, the Cambridge Analytica data scandal engulfed the tech sector, and digital privacy was brought front and centre again, this time the perpetrator being a tech company, Facebook. Therefore, it's safe to predict that protecting privacy will remain a top-level priority for governments and private actors in the coming decade.

Facial recognition will become more ubiquitous as governments around the world are deploying it in a variety of different contexts, from airports, to schools and workplaces. However, this deployment has largely taken place with little public debate, and recently the general public has grown increasingly concerned about the devastating effects this technology can have on our privacy, data safety and civil liberties. Only time will tell if facial recognition will be used primarily to protect citizens or to oppress them.

The spread of privacy laws from Europe to the U.S. and then to the rest of the world has marked the past decade. Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, and California's Consumer Privacy Act, soon to become law, have given consumers access and control over their data online, empowering them to review it, edit it and even delete it in some circumstances. However, with the volume of data predicted to increase exponentially in the coming decade, rather than simply giving consumers ownership of their data, regulators will play a more active role in constraining how businesses can use their data.

Fasten your seat belt, because the coming decade will see more twists and turns when it comes to tech policy issues than ever before. And if 'existential' was chosen by Dictionary.com as the word of 2019, given the existential crisis humanity seems to be going through at both a global and an individual level, the word of 2020 could very-well be 'hope'.