Our Guest Lecture at a postgraduate course of National & Kapodistrian University of Athens
On Tuesday 2/5, Homo Digitalis participated with a guestlecture in the course “Migration and asylum governance in South-eastern Europe” of the English-language postgraduate programme “South-East European Studies: politics, history, economics” at the University of Athens. We would like to thank Professor Angeliki Dimitriadi for the kind and honorable invitation to participate in her course!
It was a unique feeling to see the great interest of the students in the activities of Homo Digitalis and our partners in the field of border management and their active participation in the discussion with questions! Awareness-raising activities like these remind us of the importance of developing fruitful partnerships between civil society and academic institutions!
We were represented at the guest lecture by the Secretary of the Board of Directors, Eleftherios Chelioudakis. We would also like to thank our member Asimina Koliniati who brought us in contact with the lecturer!
If you also have suggestions for joint awareness raising activities, you can contact us at “info@homodigitalis.gr”.
We express our concern about the introduction of a mechanism providing for direct payments from content providers and technology companies to major European telecom companies.
In February 2023, the European Commission presented a series of actions to transform the EU’s connectivity sector, including an exploratory consultation on the future of the connectivity sector and related infrastructure.
Today, 48 organisations, including Homo Digitalis, published a joint statement expressing our collective concern about calls at EU level for a mechanism to provide for significant direct payments (“network contribution”, “network fee”, “fair share”) from content providers and technology companies to large European telecoms companies.
We call on EU policy makers and Member States to resist the imposition of direct payment obligations in favour of the largest telecom operators! Six MEPs support our stand!
You can read our joint statement in English and the MEPs’ joint support here.
You can read the relevant EU Press Release here.
Homo Digitalis speaks for the 3rd consecutive year at RightsCon
Homo Digitalis speaks for the third consecutive year at RightsCon, the largest international conference for the protection of Human Rights in the modern digital age!
This year we are hosting our own session entitled “How to beat a Centaur? A closer look into technology-led border management in Greece”, in which we will talk about the use of new technologies, such as the KENTAYROS surveillance system, in the field of border management in Greece.
More than 1850 applications were received from organisations in 132 countries. The selection of our proposal by the organisers is a great honour and is another important recognition of our actions and our contribution to the protection of digital rights at an international level.
Our Board Secretary, Eleftherios Chelioudakis, will represent us at the session. We would like to thank the organizers for accepting our proposal!
RightsCon2023, organized by Access Now for the twelfth time this year, will take place with a physical presence in Costa Rica, while online participation is also possible. You can register and learn more about the program here.
Our participation in the study "DMA & DSA: A comprehensive inventory of the EU's effort to regulate digital platforms & the digital economy"
Yesterday, the ENA Institute for Alternative Policies published the study “DMA & DSA: An analytical inventory of the EU’s effort to regulate digital platforms & the digital economy”, in which Christos Zanganas, Lawyer representing Homo Digitalis and Antonis Bogris, Information & Communications Engineer and Professor at the University of West Attica, participated.
You can read the study here. Thank you very much for your cooperation!
Our speech at REDA 2023 at the European University Cyprus
The important international conference REDA 2023 (Regulation and Enforcement in the Digital Age) is taking place on May 5th at the European University Cyprus!
There our member and lawyer Stergios Konstantinou will participate with a speech in the thematic session “EDPB: Binding Dispute Resolution on the WhatsApp case”.
You can find out more information about the conference programme and the free registration to attend the conference in person here.
Our participation in the 6th annual DFF strategic meeting
In March we had the great pleasure to take part in the 6th annual strategic meeting of the Digital Freedom Fund in Berlin!
After three years of pandemic, it was finally an opportunity to get together again with a unique community of organisations fighting for the protection of Human Rights in the modern digital age of the information society, to share strategies, ideas and knowledge for future joint actions, to expand our circle of contacts and to develop important bonds of trust!
Homo Digitalis was represented by our President, Elpida Vamvaka.
We would like to thank the organizers for the invitation! You can learn more about the meeting here.
Our speech at the Infocom Security Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Personal Data and Cybersecurity
For yet another year, Homo Digitalis has the great pleasure to be present at the Infocom Security Conference! The 13th edition of the conference, which is a benchmark in the field of information technologies in Greece, will take place on April 26 & 27 at the Athens Conservatory.
Our member, Dimitris Dosas, Infrastructure and Security Engineer will represent us in the 3rd session of the 1st day of the conference in the discussion panel “ArtificialIntelligence – CyberSecurity – DataProtection. where participants will highlight all the challenges and aspects related to AI and its correlation with security and privacy.
The panel includes leading experts, moderated by the excellent Vassilis Vassilopoulos, Journalist & DPO of ERT.
-Iliana Kostis Lawyer, PhD, University of Athens, Greece. Aegean Lawyer, PhD in Personal Data and Artificial Intelligence,
-Athanasios Kosmopoulos – Data Protection Officer of the Ministry of Digital Governance, National Representative at the European Cybersecurity Competence Center,
-Spyros Tassis, President of the Hellenic Association for Data Protection and Privacy (HADPP), and
-Leonidas Kanellos – President DPO Network.
We would like to thank the organizers for their kind invitation! You can register for free and learn more, here.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs does not respond to Homo Digitalis on PREDATOR
On 11 October 2022, Homo Digitalis submitted a request to the Directorate for Multilateral Economic Relations and Trade Policy of the General Secretariat for International Economic Relations and Externalisation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
We sought information on the approval/rejection of dual-use technology export license requests, as well as the country of destination of the end user. It was a strategic action in order to find out with statistical data whether technologies such as PREDATOR had been given the green light for export by the Greek authorities.
We received no response to our request, despite the fact that European legislation, and in particular Article 23 of Regulation 2021/821, provides for the keeping of relevant statistical data by the competent authorities of the Member States.
On 30 November 2022, a months-long investigation, the result of Inside Story.’s collaboration with the investigative journalism organisation Lighthouse Reports and the Israeli newspaper Haaretz brings to light that an aircraft linked to the Israeli PREDATOR tycoon delivered surveillance technology to notorious paramilitaries in Sudan in May 2022.
Yesterday, the deputy foreign minister said in a radio interview with Real FM that “”The export license given to Predator and Sudan has nothing to do with the civil war. The civil war was not caused by it.”
Joint Letter to the European Parliament on the AI Act
The European Parliament is preparing to vote on the proposed legislation on artificial intelligence #AIAct.
In a joint letter today, European Digital Rights and 75 other organisations, including Homo Digitalis, are sending a clear message to protect Human Rights and call on MEPs to pay due attention to the problematic provisions of the proposed text!
In order to do so, MEPs will have to vote:
-to strengthen the framework for the protection of Human Rights,
-on specific accountability and transparency obligations regarding the use of artificial intelligence systems,
-for a ban on the use of AI systems that pose unacceptable risks to the protection of everyone’s rights!
You can read the joint letter here.