The Secretary of Homo Digitalis, Lefteris Chelioudakis successfully participated in the important domestic conference on legal issues concerning AI Quo Vadis AI.

The panel we participated in was chaired by the President of the Data Protection Authority, Mr. Konstantinos Menoudakos, and was attended by speakers of excellent quality, namely Professor Eleni Kosta of Tilburg University, Dr. Nienke van der Have, of the EU Fundamental Rights Agency, Dr. Ioannis Kobatsiaris of CERTH-ITI, and Mr. Andreas Tsagaris of Performance Technologies S.A.

Eleftherios  Chelioudakis focused his presentation on Homo Digitalis cases that have been of interest to the AIPPI over the last 4 years in the field of AI. You can read more about the Quo Vadis AI conference here.

Homo Digitalis had the great honor and pleasure to participate for the 2nd consecutive time in RightsCon 2022, the largest Human Rights conference in the world!

Specifically, on 8/6 our co-founder and Secretary of the Board, Eleftherios Chelioudakis represented us in the panel organized by the organization No Tech For Tyrants, speaking about our actions against intrusive technologies used by the Greek Police, along with speakers from the University of Cambridge, the Internet Freedom Foundation, Mozilla and CESeC!

Also, on 9/6, our team participated in the Social Hour Gathering of European Digital Rights and we had the opportunity to inform the public about our activities at national and European level!

You can find out more about RightsCon2022 and watch our interventions recorded here (registration on the conference platform required).

The European Union’s Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) mentions in its annual study on Human Rights the actions of Homo Digitalis for the third consecutive year!

It is a great honour and recognition for Homo Digitalis and it arms us with the courage and strength to continue our actions!

You can read FRA’s annual study here.

The signature collection event for the #ReclaimYourFace Initiative, which took place on 4/6 in Athens, was a success.

The event was an excellent opportunity to inform the public about the significant challenges posed by the use of biometric surveillance technologies in public places and the risks to democracy and the protection of Human Rights.

After the event we met with Homo Digitalis members to celebrate four years of Homo Digitalis activities, and to organize future activities!

Today Elpida Vamvaka and Yannis Spanakis spoke to the children of the 41st Primary School of Heraklion about digital footprint and cyberbullying. The students discussed with great interest their concerns and the incidents they face in their everyday life. During the break we handed out free cookies so that we could all learn in a fun way what they represent and what to watch out for.

Many thanks to the management and the teachers for the warm welcome! They deserve a lot of congratulations for the education they give to the children of 41st Elementary covering issues that affect the whole society!

The co-founding member and Vice President of Homo Digitalis, Stefanos Vitoratos, will represent Homo Digitalis at the TRADEMARKS & PATENTS LAW FORUM – Strategies for the Digital Age conference, organized by CLEON Conferences & Communications on Friday, May 27, 2022 at the Divani Caravel Hotel.

The conference is under the auspices of Homo Digitalis together with ELONtech-European Law Observatory on New Technologies and ESIMET – Brand Owners Association Greece-Cyprus-Albania-Romania-Romania-North Macedonia.

The European Digital Rights General Assembly 2022, which took place in Berlin, was a success! There we met with the other EDRi members and communicated our goals for the coming year, planning the next steps to defend our rights in the digital world.

Homo Digitalis was represented by founding members Elpida Vamvaka and Lefteris Helioudakis, as well as our regular member Stergios Konstantinou.

We thank EDRi and its members in Germany Chaos Computer Club, Digitale Gesellschaft, Wikimedia Deutschland e. V., Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte e.V. for the excellent organization, hospitality and inspiration for the dynamic continuation of our work.

Privacy International today published its new comprehensive study on the interplay between personal data and competition law. The study features statements from national competition commissions and civil society organisations, and explores the relationship of cooperation between these bodies and its importance for properly addressing the human rights challenges posed by the commercial practices of large technology companies.

It is a great pleasure for Homo Digitalis to have been selected by the Privacy International team to participate in the study with statements, and of course it is a great honour to be mentioned by the Hellenic Competition Commission for our actions and their contribution to promoting dialogue in this area.

You can read Privacy International’s study here.

Today, 53 civil society organisations, including Homo Digitalis, sent an open letter to the European Parliament calling on its members to support the ban on mass biometric surveillance technologies in the provisions of the proposed legislation on the use of AI.

The action is part of the Reclaim Your Face campaign and aims to raise awareness among MEPs of the risks to democracy and human rights posed by the use of these technologies, and to ask them for their practical support for a ban on their use in the EU legislative process.

You can read the open letter here.