375. The Device

Klaus Schwab is the founder of the World Economic Forum. The Forum holds an annual conference in Davos, Switzerland, attended by presidents, prime ministers, chief executives, and other individuals whose jobs require them to attend conferences about the future. Topics at Davos include governance, data, emerging technology, and how these things can be used to improve the management of civilization. The conference has been running since 1971. It is very well organized.

Schwab has announced that he found a secret listening device in his home office.

The device was not his. It had been placed there by someone who wanted to listen. To whom the device was transmitting, and what they learned, and what they plan to do with the information, are not currently known. The World Economic Forum has not issued a statement clarifying whether information collected from a Forum founder's home office falls within the categories of data the Forum has historically considered appropriate.

The World Economic Forum has discussed data quite a bit. The proper management of data, the governance of data collection, and the role of data in enabling better decisions are recurring items on the agenda. Data is generally presented at these conferences as something that should be used responsibly, with appropriate oversight, to improve outcomes. The conference has not clarified whether listening to Klaus Schwab at home falls within this framework. The framework does not currently appear to address this case.

Schwab discovered the device himself. He found it in the place where he works. He has presumably spent considerable time in this room over the past several decades preparing for conferences about data, transparency, and trust. The listening device was in this room also, presumably, for some of that time. It may have heard several years of conference preparation. Whether any of this preparation was found useful by whoever placed the device is unknown.

The device has been removed. The World Economic Forum's next conference has not been announced. The agenda is expected to include items related to technology, governance, trust, and the future. Whether the device incident will appear on the agenda is unknown. It would fit naturally into the existing program.