Shifting Left on
Human Rights
Dan Appelquist
Open Source Strategist, Samsung
W3C Advisory Board Member
What future are we building?
Standards are architecture.
Standards cannot be �developed in a vacuum.
Wide review is essential.
What facilitates wide review?
Open access
Transparency
Public comment
Connections
Inclusive culture
Willingness to listen
Royalty-free licensing
Published values
W3C Wide Review
Accessibility (A11Y)
Internationalization (I18N)
Privacy
Security
Architecture & Design
Sustainability (coming soon)
Special review groups
Accessible Platform Architectures
Internationalization Interest Group
Privacy Working Group
Security Interest Group
Technical Architecture Group (TAG)
Special review documents
Accessibility Checklist & Questionnaire…
Internationalization Checklist…
Privacy Principles (Statement)…
Self-Review Questionnaire: Security and Privacy…
Web Platform Design Principles…
Accessibility
Visual rendering? Author control over color? User input? User interaction? Document semantics? Time-based visual media? Time limits? Content fallback Mechanisms?
Internationalization
Natural language text? Character encoding? Typographically appealing text? Capturing user input? Names, addresses, time & date formats? Cultural norms?
Privacy & Security
Data minimization? Personally-identifiable information? Data that persists across sessions? Access to underlying platform features? Functionality in private modes? Privacy & security considerations sections? Threat modeling?
Privacy Principles Statement: https://www.w3.org/TR/privacy-principles/
Design Review
Priority of constituencies.
“User needs come before the needs of web page authors, which come before the needs of user agent implementors, which come before the needs of specification writers, which come before theoretical purity."
Web Platform Design Principles: https://www.w3.org/TR/design-principles/
c.f. RFC 8890
Ethical Principles for the Web
Started with an idea: we already have ethics encoded into the web platform, so let’s write these things down.
Core principles on top of which we can build actionable advice.
“Put internationally recognized human rights at the core of the web platform.”
Ethical Web Principles Statement: https://www.w3.org/TR/ethical-web-principles/
There is One Web
Do not cause harm to society
Support healthy community
The web is for all people
Respect people’s privacy
The web is secure
Enable freedom of expression
The web is transparent
Possible to verify the provenance of information
Enhance individuals’ control and power
The web is environmentally sustainable
Multi-browser, multi-OS, multi-device
People may render content as �they wish
Technology without ethics makes �social inequality worse.
“But we’re not ethicists!”
Shift left.
Shift left on security…
Shift left on privacy…
Shift left on accessibility…
Shift left on ethics.
This is our responsibility.
Ethics can help standards to �encode human rights.
What do Standards have to do with Human Rights?
Technical standards are rules that tell systems what they can and can’t do; therefore they can tell people what they can and cannot do, and what can be done to them.
We can build standards that accommodate the needs of the people outside of the mainstream of society, or we can choose to ignore those needs.
We can build standards that resist surveillance or we can build them to accommodate it.
“But technology is neutral!”
Turns out, no.
All human endeavours are political.
Case Study: Securing the Web (2014)
Standards are transnational.
Not just the what, but the how.
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights recommended technical standards orgs:
Inclusivity, transparency, openness facilitate wide review.
These principles are now enshrined in the Vision for W3C.
Draft Statement: https://www.w3.org/TR/w3c-vision/
Wide review, informed by ethics & human rights, contributes to a better future.
Estamos empezando.
(We are just beginning.)
Dan Appelquist
@torgo@mastodon.social
W3C Wide Review: https://www.w3.org/guide/documentreview/
Ethical Web Principles: https://www.w3.org/TR/ethical-web-principles/
Privacy Principles: https://www.w3.org/TR/privacy-principles/
Vision for W3C: https://www.w3.org/TR/w3c-vision/