On June 15th Privacy International launched its campaign #NotOnOurWatch with regards to the acquisition  of FitBit by Google.

FitBit’s devices collect a great amount of sensitive personal data of their users. If Google manages to fulfil its goal and acquires  Fitbit, it will gain access to yet another significant user database, strengthening even more its position in the European and global market. In addition, the big amount of information that will be owned by Google, will help the company form  a complete impression of its users and every part of their daily life.

Along with the organizations Access Now, ARTICLE 19, European Digital Rights – EDRi and Idec – Instituto Brasileiro de Defesa do Consumidor,  Homo Digitalis supports the campaign by Privacy International #NotOnOurWatch.

Individuals and Organizations can support the campaign for free in one simple step, by co-signing the open letter towards the European Commission!

Find more about the campaign here.

Sign the open letter and support the campaign for free here.

We evaluated the applications we use with the CAP-A tool

With the pandemic of Covid-19 expanding uncontrollably, we were forced, in a short time, to get acquainted and make part of our daily life applications that we did not know before, such as Skype for Business, Zoom or MS Teams in order to facilitate our work even our social and personal contacts.

At the same time, we continue to use social networking platforms to communicate with relatives and friends while we or our children play online games.

Have we ever wondered how many of the applications we use every day respect the privacy of their users and whether the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is properly implemented?

Why, for example, do these applications request access to our contact list and photo album? Is it always necessary to access our microphone and our exact location?

Recently, the Information Systems Laboratory of the Institute of Computer Science of the Foundation for Research and Technology (FORTH) on the occasion of the CAPrice initiative approached HomoDigitalis in order to create an “awareness movement” about the consequences that digital technologies may have on privacy.

The aim is to create a community open to all in which active citizens will participate, without necessarily specialized knowledge in technology, but with a willingness to seek and apply practical solutions to privacy issues.

To make this possible, the CAP-A Portal platform was used, which among other things provides a Privacy Policy Document Annotator. This platform was developed by the Institute of Informatics of FORTH in collaboration with the company IN2 and in the framework of the European project CAP-A funded by NGI-Trust. The Annotator gives the user the opportunity to point out and comment on specific points of the terms of use and the Privacy Policy assessing compliance with the Regulatory Framework for the protection of our digital rights.

Through this platform, members of HomoDigitalis undertook to evaluate and comment on the Privacy Policy or applications known to all of us, such as Facebook, Instagram, Skype, Messenger, WhatsApp, Google Meet, Google Chrome, Slack, Trello, Asana and even games like League of Legends or Call of Duty based on specific criteria set by the platform!

Thus, the first two pilots of FORTH ran in collaboration with Bora and Safer Internet for Internet for kids but also the valuable contribution of Homo Digitalis.

In this photo you can see what licenses the viber users give, how many users have evaluated the application, how many annotations have been made and how many related articles they have linked.

The ultimate goal was to propose solutions to privacy issues that concern us on a daily basis, as due to the large scope and difficult content of the Privacy Policy, most – especially those unfamiliar with privacy issues – give our “blank check” for the processing of our data without having exactly understood what it consists of, for what purposes it is carried out and what exactly the creator of each application seeks from it.

For example, when we click “I agree to the Terms and Conditions” without of course having read them, do we know that we consent to the application having access to our contacts, our location and even the microphone or camera of our device?

The information collected from the use of the platform is used to export and configure statistics regarding the “friendliness” of applications related to the protection of user privacy and the formation of a secure internet that respects our rights.

The trust shown to us by FORTH, the largest research institution in Greece, and the Cap-A team, honors us and pushes us to act collectively once again, in order to form a pillar of important developments for the shaping of modern digital affecting a number of rights and freedoms in the digital space.

Note: The CAP-A application is also available in the Play Store for Android Software, thus making it possible for more users to use the application and to evaluate applications that they use on a daily basis.

See here how you too can evaluate the applications you use and thus contribute to enhancing the privacy of all of us!

The HomoDigitalis team involved in the project consisted of the following members: Elpida Vamvaka, Adamantia Volikou, Eva Davaki, Marina Zacharopoulou, Stefanos Tampis, Stergios Konstantinou, Antigoni Logotheti, Mariliza Baka, Magdalini Skondra, Lefteris Stavra

Sources:

1. https://www.caprice-community.net/
2. https://saferinternet4kids.gr/nea/cap-a/
3. https://cap-a.eu/new-cap-a-pilot-bora-business-apps/
4. https://cap-a.eu/portal/#stats2.2

On 16 and 17 June, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, Ms. E. Tendayi Achiume, organised a meeting of experts in the context of her report on Race, Borders and Digital Technologies. The meeting was co-organised with the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and particularly the “UCLA Law Promise Institute for Human Rights” and the “UCLA Center for Critical Internet Inquiry.”

Eleftherios Chelioudakis represented Homo Digitalis at the two-day meeting of experts and gave a presentation on the positions of our organisation, as reflected in the relevant memorandum we had submitted, as well as the technologies used in the field of border guarding at European level.

It was a great honor for Homo Digitalis to be present at this two-day meeting and to exchange ideas and views with the UN Special Rapporteur as well as with the outstanding participants. We would like to warmly thank the Special Rapporteur, Ms. E. Tendayi Achiume, for the interest she showed in our written proposals and presentation, as well as for the opportunity she gave us to participate in the meeting she organised.

It is worth noting that the meeting was attended by leading universities and civil society organisations from around the world, such as University College London, the T.M.C. Asser Instituut, Queen Mary University of London, Lunds Universitet, University of Exeter, Berkeley, Georgetown University, Yale, Harvard, University of Toronto, EDRi, and Privacy International, among others.

On Friday February 26th , Konstantinos Kakavoulis presented on behalf of Homo Digitalis the risks to citizens’ privacy that have arisen so far in the pandemic.

The presentation was given at the 5th Data Privacy and Law Forum [link in Greek] which was organized with great success by Palladian Conferences.

Notable professionals and academics took part in the conference which was organized under the auspices of Homo Digitalis.

January 28th is European Data Protection Day. On that occasion, the Centre of Liberal Studies (‘KeFiM’) (link in Greek) organized on January 27th a webinar on “Privacy Challenges in Times of Pandemic”.

Konstantinos Kakavoulis presented the issues that arise regarding citizens’ privacy during the pandemic. He shared the panel with Giannis Kalantzakis, KeFiM’s Data Protection Officer, in an excellent discussion moderated by KeFiM’s president, Alexandros Skouras.

The event is available to watch here (in Greek).

Homo Digitalis was invited to the event “Big Data, Democracy and Digital Rights” organised digitally by the Network for the Democratic Reform of the State-Via Publica.

The organization was represented by Konstantinos Kakavoulis.

A very interesting three-hour discussion was also attended by:

– Stefanos Loukopoulos, Co-Founder and Executive Director of VouliWatch.

– Mr. Haris Papaevangelou, PhD, Researcher of online platforms & social media

– Babis Polychroniadis, Journalist

– Andreas Panagopoulos, Journalist

The discussion was moderated by Mr. Christoforos Vernardakis, Member of Parliament for Athens.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

Following the publication of both the original contract for the provision of modern distance education between the Ministry of Education & Religious Affairs and Cisco, and its subsequent amendments, Homo Digitalis makes known its comments on the protection of personal data, as guaranteed by the contract and in the process of providing distance education services.

It should be noted that the comments relate exclusively to the scope of the organisation’s activities, namely the protection of digital rights, and do not extend to comments on the procedure for signing the contract or its subsequent notification.

Homo Digitalis’ comments are available here.

Important positions on issues related to opacity and non-publication of the contract, as well as regarding violations of the Parliament’s Rules of Procedure have been published by Vouliwatch, which focuses its actions on promoting open government, and enhancing transparency and accountability of public bodies.

Read in detail the Vouliwatch’s well-founded comments here.

Today, the Legal Frameworks Group of the Council of Europe ad hoc Committee on AI (CAHAI) had its first meeting. LFG is mandated to ensure that the CAHAI’s deliverables, such as the main elements of a legal framework for the development, design and application of artificial intelligence based on the CoE standards on human rights, democracy and the rule of law, include concrete text proposals in the form of possible legal instrument(s).  The LFG should complete its work by December 2021. Ms. Peggy Valcke (Belgium) και Mr. Riccardo Villa (Italy) were elected as Chair and Co-chair of the LFG, respectively.

Homo Digitalis has the great honor to be part of this Group represented by one of our co-founders, Eleftherios Chelioudakis.

You can read the draft agenda and get informed about LFG and the other groups of CAHAI in its official website.