Tactical Tech

Fundación Internet Bolivia.org: equipping decision-makers and citizens to advance personal data protection in Bolivia

3 minutes read | First published: November 27, 2023
Photo by Fundación Internet Bolivia taken during the workshop with journalist to build a guide about safeguarding personal data in their workspace
Picture this. A Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on Citizenship and Personal Data Protection that trained over 1500 participants, including politicians, journalists, health staff, school and university students and educators, lawyers, parliamentarians, social movements and NGOs. This remarkable initiative, spearheaded by Fundación Internet Bolivia, not only raised critical awareness about personal data protection but also promoted conversations about the urgent need for policy debates and technological advancements in Bolivia.
Fundación Internet Bolivia.org, which works to advance digital inclusion and promote the critical use of technology from a Human Rights perspective, has been actively advocating for the passing of a Personal Data Protection law by the Legislative Assembly in Bolivia. Their strategies to amplify public consciousness and stimulate discourse on these pivotal matters involved the creation of learning platforms, both in the digital and the physical world.
On the one hand, they ran the 4-week-long Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) “Citizenship and Human Rights in the Digital Era”. Building upon the foundation of the Voter’s Guide from the Influence Industry Project, they created Online Privacy Exercises and real-world case studies to enrich the course content.
  • Banner for the online workshop Citizenship and Human Rights in the Digital Era
    Pictures by Fundación Internet Bolivia.org. Banner for the online workshop Citizenship and Human Rights in the Digital Era
  • A journalist participating in one of the activities to co-develop a collective guide on treating personal data during their work activities
    A journalist participating in one of the activities to co-develop a collective guide on treating personal data during their work activities
On the other hand, they hosted an in-person invitation-only workshop with sixteen journalists, who worked together to create a collective guide on treating personal data in their workspace. They used real cases of journalistic coverage that significantly impacted the attendees and made them participate actively.
““Organizing the MOOC and the workshop enabled us to reach out to audiences with whom we had not been in close contact before. MOOCs proved a broad demand for the Bolivian population to be trained in using information technologies, take care of their data, and understand the digital world. It was evident that the interest exists and will continue to grow. We feel that we can cope with that demand at least in part as a result of the partnership.”Fundación Internet Bolivia
Final report by Eliana Quiroz, Board member and Camilo Arratia, consultant at Fundación Internet Bolivia