Carlos Moreira began his influential career in the 1990s as an advocate for Digital Human Rights while working at the United Nations. Over a span of 15 years, he played a pivotal role as an expert in telecommunications, e-security, and information networks for various UN agencies. His work involved research, development, implementation, analysis, and negotiations concerning cutting-edge technology, e-security, and e-commerce. Carlos has focused extensively on the interplay between information technologies, security, trust models, telecommunications, and networks.

In 1998, Carlos founded the OISTE.ORG foundation with a mission to defend privacy as a basic, fundamental human right. In an age dominated by surveillance capitalism, where digital technologies track and scrutinize our every move, OISTE.ORG stands as a bulwark against the commodification of our lives. As Shoshana Zuboff highlighted in 2018, the digital economy views every click, search, or like as an asset to be monetized, turning our freedoms into profit. Our very existence in cyberspace is plundered for behavioral data, domesticated into a system where decision rights vanish before we even know there was a decision to make.

Carlos and the OISTE.ORG foundation advocate for a new awareness, infused by a human-rights-based approach that regards each “netizen” as a dignified moral being deserving of respect. Without this shift, the connectivity that empowers us will continue to be inextricably layered with the diminishment of our freedoms.

Building upon various resolutions adopted by the UN General Assembly and the Human Rights Council on the protection and promotion of privacy in the digital age, OISTE.ORG has established a panel to address critical issues such as:

Identifying and clarifying principles, standards, and best practices for promoting and protecting the human right to privacy.

Reinforcing principles of non-arbitrariness, lawfulness, legality, necessity, and proportionality in State communications surveillance.

Ensuring that profiling, automated decision-making, and machine-learning technologies adhere to agreed safeguards and do not undermine human rights.

Introducing a gender perspective and ensuring effective domestic oversight and remedies for privacy rights violations.

Addressing personal data management issues, particularly concerning the lack of free, explicit, and informed consent for the re-use, sale, or multiple re-sales of personal data.

Examining the human rights impacts of artificial intelligence, with a focus on preventing discrimination and bias.

In 2013, the OISTE Foundation signed The International Principles on the Application of Human Rights to Communications Surveillance immediately after their launch at the 24th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. The foundation continues to invite other organizations to join in this crucial initiative.

Carlos was previously recruited by prestigious organizations, including the European Free Trade Association, the International Labour Office, the International Trade Center, and UNCTAD in Geneva. In these roles, he served as a special adviser on new technologies, guiding these agencies through the complex landscape of emerging digital systems.

From 1983 to 1993, Carlos was one of the leading experts at the International Trade Center UNCTAD/WTO, specializing in new technologies and telecommunications. He managed Trade Information Networks and e-commerce systems, with a particular focus on secure information-network services that connected embassies, ministries, and their staff via secure telecommunications networks.

As the Head of the UN Development Center for the Global Trade Point Network, Carlos conceptualized and developed GTPnet and the Electronic Trading Opportunity (ETO) system. At the time, these systems represented the world’s largest trading switch and were precursors to many of today’s e-marketplace applications, such as EC21 and Alibaba.

In 1993, Carlos successfully launched the Electronic Trading Opportunity System and Trade Point System in Bangkok, which quickly became the largest eCommerce exchange on the internet. His work in this field laid the foundation for many modern e-commerce platforms.

Between 1994 and 1998, Carlos led the Trade Efficiency Lab at RMIT in Australia, where he spearheaded the creation of the first web portal for the United Nations. This portal became one of the world’s top 10 websites in terms of traffic, connected to a network of mirror sites across 35 universities worldwide.

Carlos’ forward-thinking perspectives on trust and security in the digital age were encapsulated in his article for the World Economic Forum titled “Should Big Trust Replace Big Data?”. The piece explored the evolving landscape of trust and security on the internet, arguing that 2015 would be a pivotal year for both consumers and companies to recognize the distinction between local trust and global security. The article also introduced the concept of Big Trust, emphasizing the importance of prioritizing consumer privacy over the commercialization of customer data.

Fast forward nearly a decade, and while Big Data has become the dominant force—often at the expense of consumer trust and privacy—Carlos’ vision for a Trust-based economy remains more relevant than ever. He continues to advocate for a digital economy where companies are rewarded for prioritizing consumer protection and privacy, urging policymakers and regulators to enforce robust privacy standards that hold companies accountable for their handling of consumer data. His work seeks to reinvigorate the concept of Big Trust as a necessary counterbalance to the current data-centric model, aiming to build a digital economy that truly serves the interests of consumers and restores trust in the digital world.