Unfortunately, I have spent way too much time away from my webpage, as a result there isn’t a lot of new content here. I hope I’ll be able to change it this year.
This past year has truly upended the lives of one and all. My thoughts are with each and every soul on this planet, who has lost one of his/her loved ones to this virus, for whom the light at the end of the tunnel is the faintest of all. May the lord give you strength.
The GDPR, or the Datenschutz Grundverordnung (DSGVO) in German, might well be one of the most groundbreaking pieces of legislations of the EU which directly or indirectly affects not just EU citizens, but internet-users all across the globe. However, to make it a real success, one of the most important factors is that we must be better informed and aware of the provisions of this directive.
GDPR is the first genuine effort to unify the plethora of disparate privacy regulations put forward by different regulatory bodies. It aims to not only give more control over their personal data to the citizens, but also make conformance for businesses easier by defining unified guidelines. It also presses businesses, especially those dealing with sensitive personal data, to build their information systems in a way that confirms with Privacy by Design. These regulations aim to ensure a more transparent handling and processing of personal data, and create an environment of trust and awareness on both sides, i.e., the data owner as well as the controllers/processors.
GDPR mandates that the highest privacy settings be used by default, and ‘explicit and verifiable’ consent be taken from the subject, and at the same time, also bestows the Right to Access and the Right to Erasure, which enables more transparency and accountability while handling personal data. The penalties for non-conformance are major enough that all kinds of companies, from small start-ups to large corporations, must take efforts and steps to follow these regulations.
To provide a brief introduction to the topic, I wrote a small paper, which can be found here. Hopefully, this helps in providing a more comprehensive understanding of the provisions of this law, without using a lot of legal jargon. Indeed, the technology that enables the GDPR is nothing new, and has existed for decades, including our encryption methods. However, the rise of internet users, and the importance of data in the current times has necessiated this urgent push.
It remains to be seen how citizens and businesses react to the GDPR. Many businesses have vol- untarily extended the coverage of the GDPR to non-European citizens as well, which is certainly a bright spot. The effort itself, after years of deliberations in the EU Parliament, on a subject that is important, and yet so personal, is commendable. To make it successful, we will have to work together and ensure a higher awareness amongst internet-users regarding the GDPR itself, and to use their consent in a judicious and privacy-aware manner. Privacy awareness will surely lead to a safer internet, with lesser instances of spillage of personal information. Our politicians have taken the first step towards providing us some guarantees and control over how our personal information is used. Now, the ball is in our court.
Up until the last few years, the ways in which humans commuted remained largely the same. Indeed, trains had existed since the early 1800s, and cars and airplanes had already become the ‘next big thing’ in the 1950s. However, change ushered in when we started realizing that the astonishingly powerful engines that power our traditional means of transport are also unfathomably threatening to the environment.
Since then, development of technologies such as electric vehicles, the hyperloop concept, the ever- increasing network of efficient public transport and autonomous vehicles, have taken precedence. In my humble opinion, the future ways of urban commuting have to not only be sustainable and efficient, but at the same time, keep the human element alive. As artificial intelligence starts becoming more and more omnipresent, we will have to think of innovative ways to plan our urban landscape in a manner which supports our future means of transport.
During my current involvement at AUDI AG as an intern, I have pondered deeply about how changes in the way we travel will affect our lives. I have often thought that as we switch over to new innovative means of urban transport, we must also strive to keep making our existing systems more efficient and streamlined. E.g., I am a firm believer that more and more cities around the world should build efficient, people-friendly underground/suburban railway systems. At the same time, I believe that we must be well-prepared for the paradigm shifts which are going to happen sooner or later. E.g. the hyperloop technology, which will effectively change the way we currently think of cities and urban spaces themselves.
Gadgets such as the Segway promised a sea-change personal urban mobility, but fell short of their hype. But on the other hand, amazing new concepts such as the blockchain are revolutionizing the technological landscape. Blockchain is immediately identified as the raison d’être of cryptocurrency, but in reality, it has exciting applications beyond that. One of its most promising applications would be in regulating our future smart cities and making governments more transparent and accountable. But traffic management and autonomous transport is also set to benefit massively from this groundbreaking technology.
In short, the future of urban mobility is bright. Our urban spaces will be defined by how conveniently and efficiently they enable people to commute. Whether the idea of our future mobility is airborne personal transport, remains to be seen. But the gradual introduction of autonomous and electric vehicles will definitely be a step in the right direction.
What is human existence, if not our power to imagine a better world, and the tenacity to make it happen? Since time immemorial, we have imagined superior ways to express, create and invent. This is what has given us infinite possibilities to progress and transform ourselves from hunter-gatherers to a species living a sophisticated life with a purpose. In the recent years, scientists and researchers have continually strived to push the boundaries of technology further and further. I would go as far as to say that Computer Science, which is a relatively young field of science, would not have risen to prominence if we had not collectively imagined building machines which could undertake and perform the most complex tasks that humans could.
And yet, more and more perplexing questions surround us. For example,
Many of these questions have viable answers in imagination. But it doesn’t end here. Imagination also helps us pose the right questions, which I believe, is even more important for a scientist. Imagination has the power to drive the world forward, and that if pursued in a multi-disciplinary and collaborative manner along with a productive exchange of ideas, it can really lead to something substantial and path breaking.
“The potential for synthetic biology and biotechnology is vast; we all have an opportunity to create the future together.” -Ryan Bethencourt
Biotechnology has made huge strides over the last few decades. This is reflected in the steadily rising global life expectancy and lower infant mortality rates. However, as technology becomes more advanced and industries grow more powerful, several ethical questions confront us, and the onus to answer them doesn’t fall solely on the shoulders of biotechnology researchers. Indeed, since these topics concern each and every human being, the decisions and deliberations must be made collectively by the society by including as many stakeholders as possible.
The issue of privacy, more specifically, protecting the privacy of subjects of clinical trials concerns me the most, given my background in privacy research with biomedical data. Although data from clinical trials must be made available for research, we must be extremely careful and sensitive towards the privacy of the participants. Legal frameworks such as HIPAA have fostered a positive change, but groundbreaking technologies such as cryptography and blockchain have a huge role to play in building transparency and trust for data sharing.
Another issue that received worldwide attention was the plight of the farmers using Monsanto seeds, and over here rises the ethical issue of what can be patented and what must not be. At the same time, we need to make sure that the world remains free and clear of bioterrorism, which can prove to be very potent and can lead to a huge loss of human lives. In this regard, we must come together and discuss the relevant points such that our research does not take the wrong direction.
Last but not least, I believe that biotechnology and healthcare always have a human element to them, and research in these fields are undertaken to benefit humanity as a whole. Therefore, healthcare must always be affordable, and biotechnology, as a field, must be unselfish. Although, in future, biotechnological progress might involve processes such as germ-line manipulation, we must be extremely careful before we tread this path. In this case, future generations automatically become important stakeholders, and therefore, the ethical questions posed must be answered.
This is a great time to be enthusiastic about biotechnological progress, and the wider societal impact they will have. At the same time, I believe that discussions concerning ethics should never be done behind closed doors. In this regard, I am hopeful that suitable public platforms for discussion and negotiation will go a long way in ensuring that we always take the right step forward.