Without this level of inclusive debate serious progress towards addressing the societal challenges will not be made. While the new communication media provide new opportunities they also produce new threats to these principles. We, the participants of the INFOethics 98 Congress, consider the promotion of the role of information in the public domain, of multilingualism, the protection of privacy, confidentiality and security are vital issues. We consider that among the most urgent problems in this context are those of freedom of access and personal privacy. Access to the resources of the Internet should reinforce democratic participation and is a contemporary realization of the universal principle of the freedom of expression.
Privacy is one of the most threatened values and needs special protection in the electronic world.