Human rights is a central theme of the Glasgow City Council Strategic Plan which sets out an aspiration to deliver a step change in how we;

• “Promote human rights and reduce inequalities across Glasgow.
• Improve the life chances and choices for all our citizens.
• Embed social justice in our policy making.
• Empower our citizens, giving them a stake, and a say, in what happens in their local communities and communities of interest.”

The Digital Glasgow Strategy, approved by the City Administration Committee in October 2019 is a bold and comprehensive strategy that includes a broad range of actions that relate to both the digital economy and digital public services in order to elevate Glasgow’s reputation as a global digital economy and pioneer of digital public services.

The importance of human rights when considering the use and application of digital technology has steadily been increasing in importance and significance over recent years. As described within the Digital Glasgow Strategy, digital technologies undoubtedly provide opportunities to improve human rights, however they can also present a number challenges and threats to human rights such as access, privacy, ethics, equality, and inclusion.

The need to consider digital rights is already recognised in the Digital Glasgow Strategy and there are a number of actions contained within the strategy that put the needs, concerns, and rights of citizens needed to be at the centre of the strategy (such as access to digital connectivity, digital inclusion and participation, skills, privacy and security, and ethics).

The following provides an indication of how the actions contained within the Digital Glasgow Strategy support the principles of the Cities for Digital Rights Declaration.

Cities for Digital Rights Declaration Principles

DIGITAL GLASGOW STRATEGY:

Relevant Goals, Actions, and Achievements

 

PRINCIPLE 1

 

Universal and equal access to the internet, and digital literacy

GOALS

• “We want to improve connectivity where there has been insufficient and/or unaffordable broadband or mobile coverage”
• “We want to tackle digital exclusion and improve digital participation as a matter of social inclusion”

STRATEGIC ACTIONS

• Provide access to over 50,000 Apple iPads to every child from P6 and above (the largest deployment of Apple iPads to schools in Europe).
• Work in partnership across all sectors in the city to promote and collaborate to deliver the pledges made as signatory of Scotland Digital Participation Charter: Ensuring staff and volunteers have opportunity to develop essential digital skills, supporting them to help others learn essential digital skills and embrace digital tools.
• Develop training programmes to develop digital agility for community workers supporting adult literacy and numeracy services, English for speakers of Other Languages programmes, adult learning and Youth services.
• Deliver a targeted Digital Inclusion programme that ensures everybody has access to Universal Credit.
• Provide opportunities for people to further develop their essential digital skills by signposting opportunities to develop advanced digital skills for the work place.
• Encourage companies to promote digital inclusion and participation programmes to their staff.
• Provide opportunities for companies to actively support digital inclusion and participation initiatives through corporate social responsibility and/or volunteering.

ACHIEVEMENTS

• Glasgow is a signatory of Scotland’s Digital Participation Charter[1] which sets out principles for improving essential digital skills[2].
• The John Wheatley Network already provides access and training opportunities to over 8000 people across the city each year delivered across 40 learning hubs
• Glasgow Life provide hands-on support for improving essential digital skills throughout Glasgow’s libraries through the “Digi-Pals” programme.

 

PRINCIPLE 2

 

Privacy, data protection and security

GOALS

• “We want to be trusted for how we process and use data.”

STRATEGIC ACTIONS

• Where online services provide access to personal and/or sensitive information we will integrate our online services

with relevant national online identity assurance platforms.

• Develop online services that help put citizens in control of the data that is collected about them by allowing them to see how their data is used, and where possible, control consent.

ACHIEVEMENTS

• Glasgow has established the role of a Data Protection Officer as part of its implementation of the recent EU General Data Protection Regulation, putting privacy and compliance at the heart of its data management.
• Glasgow has recently achieved Cyber Essentials Plus accreditation in line with the UK’s National Cyber Security (NCSC) Cyber Essentials programme and the Scottish Government’s Cyber Resilience Public Sector Action Plan.

 

 

PRINCIPLE 3

 

Transparency, accountability, and non-discrimination of data, content and algorithms

 

GOALS

• “We want to be trusted for how we process and use data.”

STRATEGIC ACTIONS

• Build on the foundation of GDPR by developing a data ethics framework to ensure that our use of data to transform services is done so in a way that respects privacy, rights and ethics.
• Develop online services that help put citizens in control of the data that is collected about them by allowing them to see how their data is used, and where possible, control consent.

ACHIEVEMENTS

• Glasgow has established the role of a Data Protection Officer as part of its implementation of the recent EU General Data Protection Regulation, putting privacy and compliance at the heart of its data management.

 

 

PRINCIPLE 4

 

Participatory Democracy, diversity and inclusion

 

GOALS

• “We want to empower communities through better access to information and using digital technology to increase civic participation.”

STRATEGIC ACTIONS

• Launch a new digital service which will provide communities with better access to real time information about their area including community assets, demographics, planning applications and statistics on reports made to the council.
• Expand our use of digital tools to engage and involve Glasgow’s citizens in setting general priorities and in making decisions about how best to prioritise Council spending.
• Introduce digital apps that allow people to vote on local community matters (including Participatory Budgeting).

ACHIEVEMENTS

• Glasgow has launched a digital platform for deliberation and voting for Participatory Budgeting which is based upon an Open-source project and global community of cities called the Consul project (consulproject.org)

 

 

PRINCIPLE 5

 

Open and ethical digital service standards

 

GOALS

• “We want to strengthen the digital foundations that enable us to deliver sustainable and secure digital public services”

STRATEGIC ACTIONS

• We will increase the number of open data sets that we publish and expand the use of our City Data Platform in order to provide a scalable platform for publishing open data, and providing meaningful visualisations of non-sensitive data through maps and dashboards.
• We will work with partners across the city to make our technology platforms more interoperable and open and create a City Software Development Kit (SDK) that we will make available to staff and 3rd party developers.
• We will build communities of interest for data, and will facilitate engagement with city data through open innovation challenges.

ACHIEVEMENTS

• Glasgow first gained experience open data through its Open Glasgow platform funded through the Future Cities Demonstrator.
• The underlying “City Data Platform” which was built through the Future Cities Demonstrator already makes digital services publically available as well as just open data. For example, it already makes available real-time feeds traffic and car parking information available to third parties who can incorporate this information into their own applications.

 

To find out more about the Digital Glasgow Strategy, please visit: https://www.glasgow.gov.uk/councillorsandcommittees/viewSelectedDocument.asp?c=P62AFQDN2UUTDNUT81.

To find out more about our approach to GDPR and data protection, please visit www.glasgow.gov.uk/privacy .

 

 

[1] https://digitalparticipation.scot/charter