Technology Policy Consultant at AWO Agency
Boudewijn van Eerd is a Technology Policy Consultant at AWO, a new data rights agency providing legal, consultancy and public policy services to international organisations, governments, companies, charities, universities, think tanks & individuals. He works on research and advisory services across a range of topics at the intersection of technology, data rights, law, humanitarian action, policy and societies. He holds an MA (cum laude) in International Relations from Leiden University and was a student fellow at Leiden University’s Centre for Innovation, during which time his work focused on responsible humanitarian innovation and the changing dynamics between public and private actors.
Places and populations that were previously digitally invisible are now part of a ‘data revolution’ that is being hailed as a transformative tool for human and economic development. Yet this unprecedented expansion of the power to digitally monitor, sort, and intervene is not well connected to the idea of social justice, nor is there a clear concept of how broader access to the benefits of data technologies can be achieved without amplifying misrepresentation, discrimination, and power asymmetries.
We therefore need a new framework for data justice integrating data privacy, non-discrimination, and non-use of data technologies into the same framework as positive freedoms such as representation and access to data. This project will research the lived experience of data technologies in high- and low-income countries worldwide, seeking to understand people’s basic needs with regard to these technologies. We will also seek the perspectives of civil society organisations, technology companies, and policymakers.
