Human rights in the information society: Utopias, dystopias and human values

Abstract

I shall discuss the relevance of human rights for the development information society. First I shall shortly introduce the opportunities and dangers pertaining to the information society, also referring to some famous science fiction works. I shall argue that human rights may provide some guidance for addressing such opportunities and dangers. I shall then consider how different human rights are involved in the social deployment of information technologies, and the connections between such rights. Finally, I shall provide some considerations on what approach to humans right may be more useful for promoting human values in the information society.