We are in the first days of August; a month which is linked to summer leisure. You might already be on vacation or might be expecting to do so soon. You might have just returned and be enjoying the calmness of August in the city; you might have not had the chance to go on holiday.

In any case, August is a month of relaxation, of enjoyment of peaceful moments with our family and happy moments with friends. It is a month when our free time tends to be more than during any other month in the year. This free time can be used for entertainment.

Homo Digitalis does not have time to rest and relax, since an organization which focuses on the protection of human rights must be alert all year long and preserve the values, to which it is dedicated to. You will learn more on our activity in the coming days.

Notably, our experience has taught us that due to summer relaxation, this time of the year is used on purpose by the governments to act or adopt important legislation. Therefore, August is one more working month.

However, the human body needs moments of relaxation in order for it to be strong and human brain needs moments of creative thought, without being limited by everyday stress and pressure.

Thus, Homo Digitalis would like to suggest that you use the moments of leisure this August to start understanding more on the human rights issues arising from the use of the Internet and new technologies.

Let us proceed to proposals related to literature, cinema, comics and video games, so that young and old can receive important stimulus through entertainment. The following suggestions are indicative and do not illustrate the whole artwork. Moreover, Homo Digitalis neither has any economic interest from these suggestions nor has personal relations with any copyright owner.

Video games

Data dealer (2013): This game was created by activists and has as a main goal to illustrate through parody and humour the dangerous world we live in. The player becomes a data dealer, who trades them with every kind of recipients. In this way, the game transmits a message regarding the monitoring of a contemporary Internet user and its impact on the user’s choices and life. The game is available here.

VPRO & Studio Moniker, “Clickclickclick.click” (2016): This game is just one simple website. With the particularity that this website describes thoroughly the monitoring you are subject to every time you use the Internet. The place on which your cursor is moving, the time for which you remained inactive, the number of the websites you have visited in the past and your data, are communicated to you through a web voice (open your speakers). An experiment directed to raising your awareness. You can try it here.

Joint Research Centre (JCR) – European Commission, “Cyber Chronix” (2018): This game was created by the European Commission and its aim is to familiarize the public with the provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). It is available in English, French and Italian. It tells a story, taking place light years away from the Earth. There, the heroes are trying to reach an event. Their path is full of obstacles related to the protection of personal data, which the player has to surpass. The game is available here.

Literature

Aldous Huxley, “Brave New World” (1932): One of the most beloved books and one of the most well-known in this list. The book describes a future society, where human feelings have disappeared. Human beings are classified in categories from the moment of their birth, which occurs in an artificial way. The creators of this world implant to every human certain ideas depending on the social class he/she belongs to, while humans who demonstrate some kind of consciousness are drugged. Truth is lost in an ocean of fake news, human are mundane existences and enjoyment rules the brain.

George Orwell, “1984” (1949): A classic book. If you have not read it, you should do so this summer. The book describes the story of a hero, living in a country with an authoritarian regime. All the citizens are under constant surveillance under very pressing conditions. Unlimited rule, subjugation and deprivation of information prevail, while privacy is non existent.

Ira Levin, “This Perfect Day” (1970): This story takes place in an apparently ideal globalized society, the most fundamental characteristic of which is uniformity. All nations of the planet have merged in one, while otherness in not acceptable. The population is drugged in order to remain obedient, while a central computer has been programmed to keep under its control any human action.

Neal Stephenson, “Cryptonomicon” (1999): This book includes an impressive number of technical information. It is divided in two stories, taking place on a different point in time. The first story concerns cryptographers during World War II, who decrypt and transmit fake news. The second one occurs in the 1990s; a team of experts in encryption, telecommunications and computer systems tries to create an anonymous network for transactions of digital currency and circulation of information.

Dave Eggers, “The Cyrcle” (2013): This book’s heroine is the young May, who is employed by the Cyrcle, the most powerful Internet company worldwide. The Cyrcle uses its own platform through which, its users exchange money, complete their banking transactions and socialize. The Cyrcle constantly develops new technologies, among which a camera which everyone can carry with him and record everything live. Soon, transparency becomes the most important value and the solution to every problem, while privacy is left aside.

David Shafer, “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” (2014): This book describes events from the lives of three different persons. They have nothing in common, until the moment they are called to join other activists to fight against an anti-democratic team of people, who serve great interests and strive for the privatization of all information.

Yuval Noah Harari, “Homo Deus: A brief History of Tomorrow” (2016): The author examines the form of the world and the human of the future, based on personal conclusions, but also common assumptions and lessons learned through history, philosophy, sociology and many other scientific fields.

Comics

Brian K. Vaughan, Marcos Martin, Muntsa Vicente, “The Private Eye” (2013-2015): What can someone say for these comics series? Exceptional creators, who have been linked with famous comics creations (Ex Machina, Saga, Daredevil, Amazing Spider-man) transfer the reader in an extremely particular future society. There, because of the fact that in the past the personal data of all people had leaked, thus shuttering the notion of privacy, the Internet is not used anymore, people come out of their houses only in carnival costumes, while the media play the role of police.

Brian K. Vaughan, Steve Skroce, Matt Hollingsworth, “We Stand on Guard” (2015-2016): This comic talks about the adventures of a group of Canadian citizens in 2112. This group is trying to protect their society from the US, which is a tremendously advanced State in terms of technology.

EDRi, “Digital Defenders vs Data Intruders” (2016): EDRi constitutes an umbrella under which all NGOs, which focus on the protection of digital rights in Europe and globally, are united. In the context of raising children’s awareness, it published the comic “Digital Defenders vs Data Intruders”. In the comic the Digital Defenders will show you some tricks and will share some advice to protect yourself on the Internet and will teach you “Web self-defense” to fight the Data Intruders.

Rick Remender, Sean Murphy, Matt Hollingsworth, “Tokyo Ghost” (2015-2017): This story takes place in Los Angeles in the year 2089. There, people live in a society, which drives them to addiction to technology and entertainment. Internet access has a significant impact, since every activity is monitored by hackers.

Cinema and TV series

Francis Ford Coppola, “The Conversation” (1974): The hero specializes in surveillance missions. A past incident though haunts every new task he assumes. This will also happen when a businessman asks him to watch two of his employees.

Peter Weir, “The Truman Show” (1998): Truman is the main hero; his life is being transmitted 24 hours per day worldwide, without him being aware of this fact. He lives in an artificial town, inhabited by actors, and fears to travel outside its boundaries and discover the real world.

Stephen Spielberg, “Minority Report” (2002): Based on the book by Philip K. Dick under the same title (1956), the movie describes technological evolution in year 2054, when murders are predicted before they are committed and the “perpetrators” get arrested before they commit a crime. What will happen when the director of this project will become the target of his own program?

Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, “Das Leben der Anderen” (The Lives of Others, 2006): The movie tells the story of a man, who is a spy in Eastern Berlin 1984. There, the Stasi spies watch the citizens. The hero will adopt a different approach towards a writer, whom he is assigned to watch.

Charlie Brooker, “Black Mirror” (2011-today): This series consists of self-contained episodes, which describe stories occuring in the not so distant future, where new technologies have gained unpredictable growth.

Sam Esmail, “Mr. Robot” (2015-today): The series describes Elliot’s life, who is a computer programmer and hacker. His everyday life changes unexpectedly when he becomes member to a team of hackers led by Mr. Robot. The goal of the team is to destroy the giant corporation E-Corp.

Alex Garland, “Ex machina” (2015): The movie describes an innovative experiment; a programmer will have to spend a few days isolated with his boss, a successful inventor and businessman, in the latter’s villa. A robot with Artificial Intelligence, the latest invention of the talented inventor, seems to be the object of the experiment.

This brings us to the end of the suggested artwork. We really hope that you invest some of your time in one of them and take some stimulus from it. Please remember, though, that human rights challenges arising from new technologies, are not fictionary, but real.

Therefore, we call you to devote some time to our website as well. Here you can find content with which we pose concerns and inform the public on our activities, as well as the ongoing situation.

Take a look at our articles, written by our members and partners, the latest news, concerning current affairs and our activity, as well as the jurisprudence concerning digital rights.

You can always contact us to express your concerns and learn more on Homo Digitalis. Please keep in mind that our team is open to new members, who are interested in the protection of human rights in the contemporary digital era.

The European Union has to face its choices

By Stefanos Vitoratos

All of us who are somehow concerned with technology, have undoubtedly faced the term “Blockchain” recently. Permitting the distribution of information, but not its copying, blockchain has started to support the backbone of a new form of revolution of information.

Although we got acquainted with blockchain mostly through Bitcoin, it is applicable beyond cryptocurrency.

Energy networks, the health sector, the banking sector, supply chains, transports, education, industry and the public sector are only some of the sectors, on which the application of blockchain is becoming examined on a pilot basis.

Blockchain redefines the role of faith in transactions and in this way it makes intermediaries less necessary.

What is the view of the European Union? Will it become part of this chain? Let us start from the beginning.

What does Blockchain mean?

This technology is based on the notion of the simultaneous creation and sharing of information. This logic is that of a digital file; let us think of something like a ledger. Every user records a transaction and then another one, thus slowly creating a record block. Every new record block is daisy-chained with the previous one, thus creating a blockchain.

Processing this model is by default decentralized, since every user who confirms the previous records and adds a new one, acts from his own computer, while the chain is common to all participants, since all of them save a copy for processing.

The faith of the transactors is based on an algorithmic relation-confirmation, rather than the traditional protection offered by a third person, which is theoretically trustworthy, such as a bank. Therefore, to put it briefly, blockchain is a cryptographically secured transaction file, which functions without a centralized authority interfering.

The difference to what we already know is that blockchain’s database is not saved centrally. The files kept are public and data are always verifiable because of the uninterrupted chain of records, hosted by millions of computers at the same time. Therefore, no block of the chain can be destroyed or amended, since such an action would require the use of tremendous computer power, capable of beating the whole network of the connected users.

Public access to blockchain safeguards transparency in transactions and diffusion of information. In the same context, the need for intermediaries, who augment the costs, disappears, since all the information related to the transaction are encrypted in the blockchain.

Evolution of the blockchain technology market in $, Source: Statista

Blockchain and human rights

As already mentioned, blockchain as we got to know it through cryptocurrency, as well as the rationale of this technology can enhance human rights protection. Think of a world where each information is public and constantly verified. Imagine how transparency could be endorsed if, for instance, the pharmaceutical supplies of hospitals, were stored in blockchain.

It is indicative that some first attempts have initiated. The UN World Food Programme (WFP), in order to alleviate the refugee crisis, in 2017 provided more than 10,000 Syrian refugees a sum in cryptocurrency, which they could use only to buy food.

The reason why blockchain was selected as a means for sharing was that the refugees, being displaced, neither had access to bank accounts nor had the opportunity to open an account rapidly in the new country where they were installed. Thus, an electronic purse was opened for everyone and the money was deposited there.

Therefore, not only did they have access to their account from anywhere in the world, but also money was saved; money which would have been paid to bank commissions for wire transfers.

Where does the EU stand?

The European Union made a step towards claiming the role of the world leader in the fourth Industrial Revolution -as it is called- through adopting a resolution for blockchain technology on May 16, 2018.

The Committee for Industry, Power and Technology of the European Parliament voted for the resolution (with 52 votes in favour, 1 against), in an initiative by the Greek Member of the European Parliament, Eva Kaili. This was the first time that an institutional organ, such as the European Parliament, discussed the potential form of a regulatory framework for the new decentralized technologies, such as blockchain.

The aim is that the relationship, which is being cultivated through this resolution, becomes the vehicle for cooperation of the Member States. In particular, the exchange of experience and expertise in technical and regulatory fields will prepare the planning of european applications of the blockchain technology in favour of the public and private sector, which will ultimately be in favour of the European citizens.

The question is how can blockchain technology comply with the GDPR, which was adopted to protect the data of the users from central entities. What is not properly answered is what happens with decentralized technology.

As mentioned above, transactions in blockchain are unchangeable. Neither can the transactions change, nor can the data be deleted, since this will “break the chain” in a way, rendering the whole blockchain non functional. At the time, the GDPR prohibits the potential storing of personal data in data chain.

Making a brief flashback, the GDPR was proposed for the first time by the European Commission in 2012 and focused mainly on cloud computing and social media.

More specifically, the GDPR, in its Article 17 introduces the “right to be forgotten”, meaning the right of persons to request the erasure of their data, thus requiring that there will be central servers which will be able to “erase” this data.

The Regulation was drafted without taking into account the blockchain technology, which was not commonly known -even as a word. Therefore, there arises an important question on whether blockchain technology can function properly, without violating the EU legislation, since a fundamental -and at the same time revolutionary- element of blockchain is that data cannot be deleted. In the way that the GDPR has been drafted, it seems that we cannot store personal data directly in the blockchain, since in the words of the GDPR these data “will not be erasable”.

At this point it must be noted that we refer to public chains, not private ones, such as the ones that a company can use for internal reasons; the latter can be created from scratch with a provision of limited/locked access by the public.

Looking into the future

When the European policy makers were discussing and finalizing the GDPR, the blockchain was not in the radar of most people.

What is obvious is that in the future we will need a flexible governance framework, which will permit us to understand the advantages of data and technology.

Governments should cooperate with society, academics and the private sector for policy to conform with such a dynamic procedure, as technology.

With the new initiatives it seems that the legislator understands that blockchain technology is able to create a system structure, in which existing business models could go forward and design a new value chain.

Through the resolution, new roads of regulatory and legal certainty for investing vehicles based on blockchain are opened, confronting serious cases of fraud and unreliability.

The very promising blockchain technology is expected to create a radically innovative ambience for the neuralgic industries and the operational structure of the public sector, while also changing our lives as consumers and citizens in general.Undoubtedly, it seems like a very complex technology. But, let us keep in mind that it constitutes the most feasible, from a technical perspective, attempt for liberation and democratization of the global economic transactions. We expect the developments and wait to see how will the EU comply with its choices.