Insights from our Celebration event: Digital Freedom Fund and University of Amsterdam Speech
At our celebration of 5 years of Homo Digitalis & 20 years of European Digital Rights (EDRi) at The Benaki Museum, we were honoured to host a talk by Dr. Alexandra Giannopoulou, digiRISE Project Manager of the Digital Freedom Fund and Researcher at UvA-University of Amsterdam!
In her presentation, she informed the audience in detail about the DFF’s grant programs and its important educational activities under the “digiRISE: Digital Rights are Charter Rights workshops” program.
She also made extensive reference to the funding received in 2023 by Homo Digitalis to develop preparatory legal actions against national legislation providing for the retention of electronic communications metadata.
Finally, he underlined the important cooperation that exists between DFF and Homo Digitalis both with regard to the project “Decolonising the digital rights field” and in the context of the annual meetings of strategic legal actions.
In fact, this last meeting was successfully co-organized by DFF & Homo Digitalis in September 2023 in Athens! You can watch the video of the event in the following link here.
We declare our full support for Freedom of the Press in Greece against SLAPP
On 25 January, C. Demetriades’ case against Reporters United & The Newspaper and journalists Nikolas Leontopoulos, Thodoris Chondrogiannos and Thanassis Koukakis for their revelations regarding the use of the PREDATOR spy software.
-We declare our full support for Freedom of the Press.
– We stand by journalists and their investigative work.
– We stand with the international, European and domestic journalists’ and human rights organisations calling for the immediate withdrawal of this abusive SLAPP lawsuit!
Participation of Homo Digitalis in the EKKE and Democritοs Study on the use of Productive Artificial Intelligence in Greece
The Special Secretariat of Foresight, Hellenic Republic (Special Secretariat of Foresight, Hellenic Republic), in cooperation with the National Centre for Social Research (EKKE) and the National Centre for Scientific Research “Demokritos” (EKKE “D” National Center for Scientific Research “Demokritos”) implemented the first empirical research approach of strategic foresight for the use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GIA) in Greece.
The research presents trends, opportunities, challenges, uncertainties and possible options that will shape the future of the country’s AI ecosystem. It provides a framework for proposed strategic initiatives and policy recommendations. Its main objective is to draw on the collective knowledge and foresight of experts and practitioners regarding the impact of the domestic Productive Artificial Intelligence (PI) ecosystem, with a time horizon of 2030.
It is a great honour for the Homo Digitalis team to be selected to be among the 30 experts who participated in the interviews using questionnaires for the preparation of the survey. The experts represented various stakeholders (public administration, research-academic community, business-private sector, civil society, professional and scientific bodies) and are systematically involved in the WTN. Our team was represented with remarks by our Board Secretary Lefteris Chelioudakis.
We would like to thank Dr. Charalambos Tsekeris, Head of the Research Project “GenAI Greece 2030”, Vice-Chairman of the National Bioethics and Technology Ethics Committee and Principal Researcher of the ESRC for the inclusion and the honorary challenge to Homo Digitalis to participate. Our organization is always available to give presence to similar initiatives and to actively participate in the public debate on the use of AI technologies.
You can read the full study here.
Insights from our Celebration event: European AI & Society Fund Speech
At our celebration event for 5 years of Homo Digitalis & 20 years of European Digital Rights (EDRi) at The Benaki Museum, we had the honour to host presentations from important foundations and organizations that have chosen to support our actions!
One of these is the European AI & Society Fund , which enables a diverse ecosystem of civil society organisations to shape policies around AI in the public interest, and mobilises the philanthropic sector across Europe to support this vital work.
The organisation’s Programme Director, Alexandra Toth, travelled to Athens and delivered an excellent talk on the challenges posed by AI applications for our democratic societies, the actions they support, the funding packages available, and of course the significant successes of EDRi & Homo Digitalis in this area.
We have immense gratitude to the European AI & Society Fund, as after 5 years of full-time volunteer activities, they gave us the opportunity in 2023 to hire the first full-time staff in our organization, the Director of Human Rights & AI, Lambrini Yftokosta Also, we would like to thank them for the funding under the Learning & Development program that made it possible to organize our workshop!You can learn more about the European Artificial Intelligence & Society Fund here.
Pro bono Educational Presentation at the 1st Lyceum of Nea Philadelphia
Homo Digitalis continues its informative talks in schools pro bono!
On Friday 12/1 Konstantinos Kakavoulis and Lamprini Gyftokosta were at the 1st Lyceum of Nea Philadelphia and talked to the students about the digital footprint.
We would like to thank the teachers for the invitation and the students, who once again impressed us with their knowledge and their willingness to delve deeper into a topic that concerns them on a daily basis.
Pro bono Educational Presentation at the Leontio School of Nea Smyrni
Yesterday Lamprini Gyftokosta and Konstantinos Kakavoulis spoke with the students of the Leontio School of Nea Smyrni about the digital footprint and their rights.
We would like to thank the students and teachers for the excellent interactive discussion.
Homo Digitalis briefings in schools all over Greece continue!
Insights from our Celebration event: The Greek Data Protection Authority's Speech
In the first live talk of our 5 Years of Homo Digitalis & 20 Years of European Digital Rights celebration event a few weeks ago at The Benaki Museum, we had the great honor to host a presentation by Dr. George Rousopoulos, Computer Engineer, Specialist Scientist of the Hellenic Data Protection Authority (DPA)!
Mr. Rousopoulos spoke in detail about the importance of the active presence of civil society organizations in democratic states, made reference to the way in which the provisions of the GDPR have led to the significant improvement in the level of protection of our personal data, but also to the challenges that arise during its implementation, when supervisory authorities remain understaffed and with reduced financial resources.
Furthermore, he highlighted some of Homo Digitalis’ significant successes, such as the EUR 20 million fine against CLEARVIEW AI and the revision of the provisions of Law 4624/2019, while underlining the importance of cooperation between supervisory authorities and the CSOs.
“In the new digital landscape, Data Protection Authorities need to be empowered to be able to support and drive the development of innovation that will bring real improvements to people’s lives. Indispensable allies in this work are civil society organisations fighting to strengthen our fundamental rights and freedoms, and to raise awareness among the wider public.”
Insights from our Celebration event: European Data Protection Supervisor's Speech
On 12/12/23 we celebrated our birthday at The Benaki Museum together with European Digital Rights (EDRi) by looking back on the important actions & unique successes we have achieved through exclusive volunteer activities during our first 5 years of operation!
Our contribution to the protection of Human Rights in the modern digital age was discussed in person or online by supervisory authorities, institutions, academics, journalists and civil society organisations!
Among them, we were honoured by the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) Dr. Wojciech Wiewiorowski , who accepted our kind invitation to deliver the opening speech of the event. EDPS spoke about the important contribution of Homo Digitalis and EDRi to the protection of personal data and privacy, the pivotal role of civil society organisations in defending democracy and the rule of law, and the need to cooperate with them.
We would like to thank EDPS and his office for the birthday greetings and the heartfelt speech. These words give us the strength to continue our work! You can enjoy a short excerpt of his speech or view the full EDPS positioning here.
We gave one of our greates interviews... in the school newspaper and the web channel of the 1st Model High School of Ilion
On Friday 15/12 Homo Digitalis gave one of the most beautiful interviews it has ever given!
Lambrini Gyftokosta and Konstantinos Kakavoulis talked about the digital footprint in the group of the school newspaper and the web channel of the 1st Model High School of Ilion!
We would like to thank teachers Chrysanthi Sotiropoulou and Ioanna Kassimi for hosting us and of course the students who impressed us with their questions and interest!
We wish the best to the young journalists and we are sure that we will have many more opportunities to meet them in the future!
You can read the article in the school newspaper here.