Homo Digitalis participates in CPDP 2021
On Monday the 29th 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.
Homo Digitalis participates in Privacy Camp 2021
On Tuesday January 26th 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 24th)! Register or take a look at the agenda here.
Homo Digitalis participates in the JET project of LSE
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.
Homo Digitalis participates in a ECI for a ban on biometric mass surveillance practices
On January 7th, 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.
Homo Digitalis requests initiation of investigation by the Greek DPA regarding the contract between Palantir and the Greek Government
Today, 17.12.2020, Homo Digitalis took strategic action and filed a request before the President of the Greek Data Protection Authority (DPA) in order for the DPA to exercise its powers of investigation in its disposal and shed light on the contract between Palantir and the Greek Government (reg. nr C/EIS/8699/17-12-2020).
More specifically, under the GDPR and the Greek law implementing it (law 4624/2019), the DPA has the power to conduct in its territory investigations concerning the application of legislation on personal data protection and the power to gain access to all information necessary for the purposes of the respective investigation and for carrying out its duties, without the possibility of objection on grounds of any sort of confidentiality.
The lack of information and adequate briefing with regard to the cooperation between the Greek Government and Palantir Technologies Inc. has caused concern to data subjects in Greek territory.
What is more, no details about the cooperation agreement have been published either on the ‘Diavgeia’ or on the ‘KIMDIS’ platforms and no press releases have been issued by the competent Ministries.
It is worth noting that the company at issue is one of the most internationally recognized in the development of intrusive surveillance technologies and data analysis sectors. It has partnered with governments of several other European countries, such as France and Denmark, in the field of policing and, of course, it has been criticized for its cooperation with the US Government on the ICE programme.
Therefore, in light of insufficient information about the types and categories of data subject to processing in the framework of the services offered by Palantir Technologies Inc. to the Greek Government and of the overall obscurity concerning this particular agreement owing to the absence of relevant details published on ‘Diavgeia’ or ‘KIMDIS’ platforms, it has not been possible for the general public to study the terms and subject-matter of the agreement and this is a cause of serious concern about the processing operations carried out. The DPA with a key intervention can examine the agreement at issue on the basis of its powers of investigation.
You can read our request here (link in Greek).
Journalist Eliza Triantafyllou published yesterday an excellent, detailed report on the contract between Palantir and the Greek Government, which includes the statements made by Homo Digitalis. You can read her report on Inside Story (link in Greek).
Furthermore, civil society organizations, such as Vouliwatch, and political parties have requested access to the contract at issue. Hence, Homo Digitalis’ action is strategic and complements well other actions that have already taken place.
Homo Digitalis participates with other EDRi members in the Remote Chaos Experience (rC3)
On December 27, Homo Digitalis will have the great honor to speak at Remote Chaos Experience (rC3), which is the online version of the Chaos Communication Congress for 2020, due to the pandemic.
The conference is organized by the Chaos Computer Club, which is the largest hacker association in Europe, and is the best-known European conference of its kind and has been held annually since 1984.
There, Homo Digitalis together with EDRi, HERMES Center for Transparency and Digital Human Rights and Share Foundation will talk about the ReclaimYourFace campaign, the actions in Greece, Italy and Serbia and the next stages of the campaign at European level.
Homo Digitalis will be represented by our co-founding member and secretary of the Board, Elefterios Chelioudakis, while the other organizations will be represented by Andrea Belu, Ella Jakubowska, Filip Milosevic and Riccardo Coluccini.
You can learn more about our panel here.
You can see the whole program of Remote Chaos Experience (rC3), here.
CoΕ CAHAI adopts Feasibility Study of a legal framework for Artificial Intelligence
Last week, the Council of Europe’s Standing Committee on Artificial Intelligence (CAHAI) adopted at its last plenary session for 2020 the Feasibility Study of a Legal Framework for Artificial Intelligence.
Our co-founding member and secretary of the Board Eleftherios Chelioudakis, represented Homo Digitalis during the three-day plenary session (December 15-17), while also as a member of the Policy Development Group (PDG), he actively participated in the writing process of the relevant study for the last 4 months.
At the beginning of 2021 the study will be officially presented to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe. The beginning of the working process of the Legal Framework Group (LFG), which will be responsible for the preparation of specific legal proposals for adoption, is also expected. Homo Digitalis also participates as a member in this working group.
Will we have a Convention on Artificial Intelligence from the Council of Europe in the future? Nobody knows yet, but it appears that the Council of Europe is carefully considering this option as well, unlike other bodies that insist on adopting ethical guidelines without a legal basis.
We are very happy that several of our proposals have been adopted and are being part of the final text of the Study.
You can read more about the CAHAI Study and its work on the official website of the Council of Europe.
Presentation of the "Reclaim Your Face" campaign at the Devstaff Community
On Thursday, December 10, 2020, Eva Davaki and Angeliki Tiligadi represented Homo Digitalis at an online event organised by the Devstaff Community.
The two members of Homo Digitalis talked about “Privacy and processing of biometric data in public places, as well as the pan-European campaign “Reclaim Your Face””.
In particular, the campaign was launched by Homo Digitalis and 9 other European civil society organisations and aims to ban mass biometric surveillance, without transparent procedures and a clear legal framework.
Support our campaign by signing up on our website now!
The event was also attended by Caprice Community of FORTH, presenting the CAP-A platform, which enhances the privacy of Android app users.
Homo Digitalis files a complaint against Google and IAB Europe for their harmful practices of behavioral advertising
Today, Homo Digitalis joined forces with other civil society organizations, namely Asociatia pentru Tehnologie si Internet (ApTi) from Romania, D3 – Defesa dos Direitos Digitais from Portugal, GONG from Croatia, Global Human Dignity Foundation from Malta, and the Institut d’information de Chypre from Cyprus. At the same time this morning, we lodged a complaint with the competent regulatory authorities of our countries against the harmful practices of Google Ireland and IAB Europe in the field of online behavioral advertising.
More specifically, within the behavioral advertising industry, fast, automated real-time auctions (real-time bidding, or ‘RTB’) take place, during which technology companies representing advertisers compete for their ads to appear in the advertising space of a website or an application. These RTB auctions currently operate through the retransmission of the personal data of each user who visits a website / application.
Simply put, IAB Europe and Google’s RTB systems broadcast private activities for everything we do and watch online, as well as where we are in the real world, in a large number of companies, hundreds of billions of times every day. More specifically, Google’s RTB system is active on millions of 13.5 sites, while IAB’s RTB system is active on countless others. Thus, the RTB systems of IAB Europe and Google entail a huge and ongoing breach of the legal framework for the protection of personal data.
These complaints are on top of another 15, filed in 2018 and 2019 in the following countries: Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Estonia, United Kingdom, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Hungary, Poland, Slovenia And the Czech Republic. Based on these complaints, investigations have already been launched by the competent supervisory authorities. This action has been organized by an alliance of organizations, namely the Civil Liberties Union for Europe (Liberties), Open Rights Group (ORG) and Panoptykon Foundation.
Some important first comments from members of Homo Digitalis and other organizations involved in the action:
- Elpida Vamvaka, co-founder and President of Homo Digitalis, reports
“Google’s RTB systems and IAB Europe result in widespread and systematic breaches of data subjects’ rights. We call on the Hellenic DPA to take action and work with the other supervisory authorities at European level to help end such abuse.”
- Eleftherios Chelioudakis, co-founder and Secretary of Homo Digitalis adds:
“The RTB industry relies on a voracious collection of different categories of personal data, which sets under the microscope every aspect of our online behavior. In particular, an ecosystem has been created in which personal data is retransmitted to a huge number of companies without the data subjects having any knowledge and control over their further data processing operations.”
- Finally, Dr. Orsolya Reich, Union of Civil Liberties for Europe (Libertés), emphasizes that:
“Real-time bidding, which is the bedrock of the online advertising industry, is an abuse of people’s right to privacy. The GDPR has been in place since 2018 and it is there precisely to give people a greater say about what happens to their data online. Today, more civil society groups are saying enough with this invasive advertising model and are asking data protection authorities to stand up against the harmful and unlawful practices they use.”
An English Q&A text for the general public is available here.
The full text of our complaint (reg. number 8478 / 10-12-2020) as filed before the Hellenic DPA is available here.