The pandemic forced schools all over Greece to continue their operation through distance learning. However, this is not enough to stop the reinforcement of outreach and awareness raising of the students as regards their digital rights!

On the 26th and 27th November, Homo Digitalis had the pleasure to organise presentations online to students of the 6th grade of the “Costeas Geitonas” school.

Konstantinos Kakavoulis, Stefanos Vitoratos, Panagiotis Gialis, and Ariana Rapti spoke to the students about cyberbullying and the ways of tackling it.

The students logged in from their homes and showed great interest for an issue concerning them more than ever.

We sincerely thank the teachers in charge and the school administration for the invitation and the smooth organisation!

Homo Digitalis stars in the second episode of the new season of “Defenders of Digital”.

This is a mini-documentary series of Tomorrow Unlocked with the support of Kaspersky regarding internet rights defenders.

In the series people and organizations fighting all around the world for the protection of free internet and human rights in the digital era present their stories.

The first season was a huge success with over 20 million viewers!

In the new episode Konstantinos Kakavoulis, Eleftherios Chelioudakis and Stefanos Vitoratos present the organization and talk about the battle of digital rights and the dangers deriving from algorithmic content control.

Watch the episode here and get to know our organization better!

A big thank you to the production company Giants and Titans and to the cinematographers Konstantinos Kalavrezos and Alexandros Masmanidis for the excellent results.

On the 27th November, Homo Digitalis participated in an online meeting of stakeholders organised by the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) with regard to the use of purposes for legitimate uses sought by the controller or a third-party as the legal basis of processing personal data.

It was a great pleasure and honour to take active part in the discussions that took place raising arguments and promoting the protection of subjects of the data against private interests, together with representatives of recognised organisations such as noyb and Access Now.

We focused our attention on the use of the respective legal basis for the processing of personal data in specific sectors, in which profound challenges have been observed as regards the protection of personal data of the subjects of those data, such as the sector of services of behavioural advertising online.

We are certain that the European Data Protection Board with the guidelines that they will publish in the near future will set the bar high promoting the protection of the subjects of these data.

Stay tuned, as significant activities in the field of behavioural advertising will soon be organized by the team of Homo Digitalis.

Mariliza Baka represented Homo Digitalis in a workshop of the PIMCity Project with the subject “Be Aware! Keep Calm and read your privacy policies”.

The workshop aimed to provide basic information about Privacy Policies and consent forms to clients and entities whose activities include the processing of personal data. It was conducted online with the participation of organizations from all over Europe. This was attended by representatives of Personal Data Protection Authorities, companies, universities and civil society organizations.

Ms. Baka presented the My Data Done Right and CAP-A platforms.

The two platforms aim to facilitate the exercise and enjoyment of citizens’ rights regarding their personal data. They achieve their goal by providing the most important information of some Privacy Policies to the users in an easy and direct way.

Homo Digitalis has been actively involved in the development of both platforms.

On November 10, 2020, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Racism, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, Professor E. Tendayi Achiume, published her Report οn discrimination issues arising from the use of new technologies in border management. 

The Report contains more than 20 pages detailing the international situation, as well as specific proposals of the Special Rapporteur to the UN regarding the challenges that arise and the measures that can be taken to reduce them.

It is a great honor for our Organization that the Report contains two citations of Homo Digitalis based on the memorandum (link in Greek) we had submitted to Professor Achiume last May.

It should be underined that Homo Digitalis maintains excellent relations of mutual trust with the Special Rapporteur, as in June 2020 we participated in an expert meeting (link in Greek), she organized on   the thematic section “Race, Borders and Digital Technologies”, while a few days ago we participated in the launching event of the Migration and Technology Monitor, of which both Professor Achiume and Homo Digitalis are founding members.

It is a great pleasure for Homo Digitalis to participate in the Migration and Technology Monitor.

The Monitor, which aims to study the use of new technologies in border management internationally, has been created upon the initiative of the Promise Institute for Human Rights of UCLA.

The Monitor’s launching event took place online on Tuesday 10 November.  The event speakers were:

– Professor Tendayi Achiume, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Racism, Xenophobia and Racial Discrimination,

– Antonella Napolitano, representing Privacy International,

– Konstantinos Kakavoulis, co-founder of Homo Digitalis,

– Kenya-Jade Pinto, photographer and video producer,

– Daniel Howden, Managing Director of Lighthouse Reports.

The event moderator was Petra Molnar from the Refugee Law Lab and Toronto University.

The Monitor has already initiated its activities and its results are expected with great interest in the near future.

The Monitor is initially funded by Open Society Foundations.

In October 2020, AlgorithmWatch and the Bertelsmann Foundation published their much-anticipated study “Automating Society II”, on the use of automated decision-making technologies in various modern life fields, such as health, education, policing or court proceedings.

The second part of the study encompasses detailed analyses by experts for 16 countries, containing also a specific reference to developments on the European Union level. This version of this year also includes Greece! This chapter presents a journalistic story and an analysis. The first part is assumed by the journalist Nikolas Leontopoulos, while the second one by Eleftherios Chelioudakis!

You can read the whole study and the chapter regarding Greece here.

In the context of the “Undoing Discriminatory Borders” program, Homo Digitalis participated on October 20^th and 27^th in an experts workshop about tech borders organized by Oxford University and Hertie School.

Our co-founder and secretary of the board, Eleftherios Chelioudakis, represented our team in the workshop.

The aim of the first phase of the project is to map the application of non-discrimination norms to immigration/nationality laws and migration controls, considering in so doing, relevant national, regional (including EU) and international laws.

You can read more about the project here.

We are very happy to announce that a paper by 9 Homo Digitalis members, entitled “Autonomous Vehicles: Data Protection and Ethical Considerations”, got accepted at the “4th ACM COMPUTER SCIENCE IN CARS SYMPOSIUM (CSCS 2020)”. The Conference will take place in Ingolstadt, Germany.

The paper is a result of hard work by professionals with the same passion for law, new technologies and the influence they have on our everyday lives.

The full paper shall be made available at our website in a few days.

The team consisted of: Ioannis Krontiris, Kalliopi Terzidou, Marina Zacharopoulou, Foteini Baladima, Kalliroi Grammenou, Konstantinos Kaouras, Mariliza Baka, Marina Tsikintikou and Chrysi Sakellari.

Bravo to all!