The Opinion of the Data Ethics Commission will be presented today in Berlin to Christine Lambrecht (SPD), Federal Minister of Justice and Consumer Protection, and Professor Dr. Günter Krings (CDU), Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Minister of the Interior, Building and Community. In September 2018, the Data Ethics Commission received a mandate from the Federal Government, on the basis of the coalition agreement, to propose a development framework for data policy, handling algorithms, artificial intelligence and digital innovations within one year.
Sixteen members from the fields of technology, ethics and law as well as representatives of various organisations participated in the expert committee, which was chaired by the co-spokespersons Professor Dr. Christiane Woopen (University of Cologne) and Professor Dr. Christiane Wendehorst (University of Vienna). Within the Federal Government, the Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection and the Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Community are jointly responsible for the Data Ethics Commission.
The Opinion contains ethical guidelines and 75 concrete recommendations for action on the handling of data and algorithmic systems, including artificial intelligence. It is intended to contribute to shaping the digital future of our society on the basis of European values such as freedom and democracy, to protecting the rights of every individual and to promoting the common good.
Professor Woopen says: ‘The Opinion of the Data Ethics Commission is like a construction plan for a bridge. It leads to a future in which the fundamental freedoms and rights of every individual in our digitally shaped world are protected and society is held together by liberal and democratic principles. The bridge is supported by the pillars of the European system of values. Politics, business and science, together with many other actors, now have the task of actually building this bridge.’
The Opinion will be presented during a festive event at the Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection, attended by representatives from politics, business, science and civil society.
The co-spokespersons will then discuss the Opinion with Minister Lambrecht and State Secretary Krings, Roberto Viola (EU Commission, Director General GD Connect, Brussels), Michael O'Flaherty (Director of the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights, Vienna) and Professor Dr. Wolfgang Hoffmann-Riem (former judge at the Federal Constitutional Court). The discussion is hosted by science journalist Ranga Yogeshwar.
Professor Dr. Christiane Woopen is Executive Director of the Cologne Center for Ethics, Rights, Economics, and Social Sciences of Health (ceres) at the University of Cologne, a center for inter- and transdisciplinary research, education, training and consulting on socially relevant issues in the field of health, and Head of the Research Unit Ethics at the University Hospital. Since 2017 she has been Chair of the European Group on Ethics in Science and New Technologies (EGE).
Contact:
Andreas Kirchner
PR Officer ceres
+49 221 470-89120
ceres-info
uni-koeln.de
Further information:
Further information on the work of the Data Ethics Commission and the possibility to download an English translation of the Opinion’s executive summary (from 23 October, 4 p.m.) can be found at www.datenethikkommission.de/.