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.

On Monday the 29^th of January, Homo Digitalis had the great pleasure and honor to participate in Computers, Privacy & Data Protection (CPDP) 2021. The panel in which we participated, was organised by MATIS Project and its moderator was Mr. Juraj Sajfert from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel.

The speakers include:

-Frank Scheurmans, Supervisory Body for Police Information (BE);

-Fanny Coudert, European Data Protection Supervisor (EU);

-Anna Moscibroda, European Commission (EU).

Our organization was represented by our co-founder Eleftherios Chelioudakis.

It has been two and a half years since the Member States of the European Union had to transpose the new rules on data protection for the law enforcement sector into their national laws. This includes the extensive provisions on the independent supervisory authorities in Chapter IV of the Directive (EU) 2016/680. However, its Article 47 of the powers of supervisory authorities is weak and vague. This pane therefore analysed the practice of supervision of the law enforcement sector in the Digital Age.

You can find the dull description of this panel in the program of CPDP 2021 here.

On Tuesday January 26^th Homo Digitals has the great pleasure and honor to participate in Privacy Camp 2021. Our organization will join European Digital Rights (EDRi) and HERMES Center for Transparency and Digital Rights (Italy) speaking about the ReclaimYourFace campaign.

Privacy Camp is an annual conference held the day before the start of Computers Privacy Data Protection (CPDP). The event brings together digital rights advocates, activists as well as academics and policy-makers from all around Europe and beyond to discuss the most pressing issues facing human rights online. Also, the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) actively participates every year in the event via the EDPS Civil Society summit.

Privacy Camp is jointly organised by EDRi, VUB-LSTS, Privacy Salon vzw and the Institute for European Studies at USL-B.

Registrations are open (deadline January 24^th)! Register or take a look at the agenda here.

Homo Digitalis has the great honor and pleasure to take part in the project “Justice, Equity and Technology» (JET), which is housed within the he Department of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Justice, Equity, and Technology Table is grounded in principles of reciprocity, respect, and solidarity and views technological systems as critical determinants of effective meaningful participation in democratic society. It combines rigorous social science research and organizing strategies to understand how, why, and when social, economic, and racial justice intersects with data-driven technologies and their governance.

Recognized civil society organizations from all around Europe participate in this project, while the first meeting took place in the beginning of January 2021. Our co-founders Stefanos Vitoratos and Eleftherios Chelioudakis represent our organization in the project.

You can read more about JET here.

On January 7^th, a European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) was published on the website of the European Commission, calling for a ban on biometric mass surveillance practices (protocol number ECI(2021)000001). Homo Digitalis has the great pleasure to actively participating in this initiative.

We call on the European Commission to strictly regulate the use of biometric technologies in order to avoid undue interference with fundamental rights. In particular, we ask the Commission to prohibit, in law and in practice, indiscriminate or arbitrarily-targeted uses of biometrics which can lead to unlawful mass surveillance. These intrusive systems must not be developed, deployed (even on a trial basis) or used by public or private entities insofar as they can lead to unnecessary or disproportionate interference with people’s fundamental rights.

Our goal is to collect 1 million signatures within 12 months from citizens residing in 7 different Member States, at least. Undoubtedly, this is a very difficult, but important endeavor.

We will start collecting signatures in the beginning of February, so stay tuned!

It is a great pleasure and honor for Homo Digitalis that two of our founding members are actively participating in this initiative. More precisely, Konstantinos Kakavoulis is the Data Protection Officer of this ECI, while Eleftherios Chelioudakis is one of the ECI’s citizens- members.

You can read in detail all related info on EC’s website here.