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Question, Alex Howard: more data is being collected on citizens. Smart cities are a big thing in Europe. Citizens should be able to know what data is gathered on them
Answer, Marietje Schaake: Legislation should be in place before things a developed that change the way data of citizens is gatherd. But technology moves fast so the legislation is often too late.
Alex Howard: Technology companies are already shaping 'speech' ([editors note: like what happend with Politwoops]).
Marietje Schaake: Indeed, that is why we need to focus on new technologies like Internet of Things.
Marietje Schaake: Governments don't think enough about what data/services they use or the citizens use from companies. While this might be fine for a while it becomes a problem once such a company is bought by companies from other countries.
[this is not all the exact text as spoken by the following people, but it does convey the arguments that were made]
Question, Sicco van Sas: You asked whether any of us miss specific information from EU institutions. The last months I hear more and more people complaining that there are more trialogue meetings (closed meetings between the European Parliament, European Commission and the Council on new directives). These meetings are not transparent. Don't you think that they should be transparent?
Answer, Marietje Schaake: I don't think that there are more trialogues lately. I also wonder whether opening up for example the minutes of these meetings will provide much information. Often the meetings last 3 hours and nothing is changed, or people discuss just changing 1 word. Furthermore there is no real data to be released as open data from the trialogues. It is just text.
Sicco van Sas: text is data!
Marietje Schaake: Still, I wonder how this should become a reality. We as MEPs can't unilaterally disclose the minutes. So we need consensus with all 3 parties on what information should be released from the trialogues. Many will argue that the negotiations can only be done in private and only releasing text from certain talks without any context will not benefit anyone as it doesn't make things are clearer.
Sicco van Sas: As Open State Foundation we would say that simply releasing all the data/text is a requirement to inform the public. Without it there is no way to inform people. Sure just releasing the data/text isn't a perfect solution in itself, but at least it allows others to create applications/solutions to add context to it or make it more understandable.