Homo Digitalis had the great honor and pleasure to attend and give a speech at the second meeting of the Center for European Policy Studies (CEPS) Working Group on Artificial Intelligence and Cybersecurity.

CEPS is a well-known think tank with high research activity and influence on European Union issues. Our organization was represented by Mr Lefteris Chelioudakis.

In our speech, we focused our attention on the “Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence” published in April 2019 by the European Commission’s High- Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence. (AI HLEG).

In particular to this, we set forth our observations on four (4) of the requirements set by the Expert Group on Reliable Artificial Intelligence, namely “Human agency and oversight”, “Privacy and Data governance”, “Transparency” and “Diversity, non -discrimination and fairness”.

We would like to thank the Head of the Working Group, Mr Lorenzo Pupillo, and his Rapporteur, Mr Stefano Fantin, for their kind invitation.

You can find out more about the event and its schedule here.

On October 24, 2019, Homo Digitalis following the complaint dated on 5/30/2019, lodged a new complaint to the European Commission for non-compliance with EU law, this time regarding the provisions of the Law 4624/2019 on personal data and namely with the provisions of Directive 2016/680 and Regulation 2016/679 (Reference No CHAP(2019)03059).

Through our complaint we aim to highlight the provisions of the Law 4624/2019, which draws attention on the protection of personal data subject’s rights in Greece. The intention is to improve these provisions through a direct legislative amendment.

However, we are anticipating with great interest the relevant Opinion of the Personal Data Protection Authority regarding the provisions  Law 4624/2019. We would like to mention here that earlier on the 20th of September 2019 Homo Digitalis and the Consumer Association “The Quality of Life” addressed a joint request to the DPA in order the Authority to issue a legal opinion regarding the newly adopted Law 4624/2019.

You can find the full text of our complaint to the European Commission  here and the registration of the complaint lodging here.

These days the 41st International Conference of Commissioners for the Protection of Private Life and Personal Data (ICDPPC) is being held.

In this context, the Organization Electronic Privacy Information Center – EPIC has published an International Declaration by calling for the cessation of facial recognition technology.

Our organization, along with other organizations, such as Privacy International, Access Now, Algorithmic Justice League, Digitalcourage e.V. etc., and individuals have singed this Declaration.

The context of the Declaration calls, inter alia, the States to suspend the use of facial recognition technology for mass surveillance purposes, and to adopt the necessary legal rules, technical standards and ethical guidelines, in order to cooperate in the future, also further develop and use such technology, with the respect of privacy, the protection of personal data and the prohibition of discrimination.

You can sign the Declaration either as individual or as organization here.

Our organization has been involved in similar activities in the past, such as the signing of the International Guidelines for Artificial Intelligence published by EPIC at the same conference in 2018. Indeed, last year we were pleased to attend that conference.

In June 7, 2019, the Directive (EU) 2019/790 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 April 2019 on copyright and related rights in the Digital Single Market and amending Directives 96/9/EC and 2001/29/EC  was entered into force. As it has been repeatedly pointed out, the Directive contains multiple problematic aspects.

At this point, the EU member states –Greece among them- now have two years, i.e. until June 7, 2021, to implement this Directive into their own national legislation.

Civil society organisations around Europe, that operate within the digital rights sector, have gathered in Warsaw between the October 11 and 13, 2019 in order to find ways to strenghten the protection of freedom of speech and the dissemination of information.

The meeting was organized by Wikimedia, Communia and the Polish organisation Centrum Cyfrowe and 25 EU member states took part in it.

Sole representative of Greece was Homo Digitalis. Mr Konstantinos Kakavoulis visited Warsaw in order to attend the meeting on our behalf.

We wholeheartedly thank the organizers for this exquisite meeting.

Please stay tuned, and keep up to date with the latest news regarding the implementation of the Directive in our country.

On 26th and 27th September 2019, Homo Digitalis had the great honor and pleasure to participate in a follow-up meeting on the strategic litigation opportunities of the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”).

The meeting took place in Berlin, hosted by the Digital Freedom Fund (“DFF”), and it is a follow-up meeting of a three-day meeting, which took place in Vienna last May.

21 academics, activists and litigators from several European countries discussed many interesting issues and shared experiences and opinions on privacy related issues blended in the modern digital age.

Our organization had the opportunity to forge important alliances for the future and to inform other attendees about the situation in our country.

Mr. Eleftherios Chelioudakis, founding member and secretariat of our organization represented Homo Digitalis at this meeting.

You can learn more details about the meeting here.

Homo Digitalis’s Stephanos Vitoratos represented our organisation at the first Cyber security Conference organized by KPMG Greece.

The conference was held on October 8 at the Grand Hyatt Athens and many Greek and foreign professionals specializing in the field of cyber security participated in it.

Stephanos Vitoratos at the conference

The conference took place in the context of the European Cybersecurity Month.

Keynote speaker at the conference was Mr Kyriakos Pierrakakis, Minister of Digital Governance, who announced the implementation of the ministerial decision that puts in force the National Cybersecurity Authority’s Internal Rules of Procedure.

We are delighted, as two more members of Homo Digitalis, Mr Vassilis Vassilopoulos and Mr Dimitris Patsos, participated in the conference as speakers with their professional capacity.

Vassilis Vassilopoulos attends panel on the importance of cyber security for businesses.

Dimitris Patsos talks about cyber security skills gap and the courses of action for Greece to bridge it.

Homo Digitalis’s members at the conference

Homo Digitalis participated in Researcher’s Night event for the second consecutive year, spreading information and knowledge to hundreds of adults and youngsters regarding their digital rights.

After our successful participation in Researcher’s Night 2018 in Athens, this year our organization attended Researcher’s Night which took place on Friday 27 September 2019 in Heraklion of Crete and specifically in the premises of the Foundation for Research and Technology – Hellas (“FORTH”).

Our little friends came at our stand and intriguingly met their digital selves. Parents and children had interesting conversations with Homo Digitalis team regarding the safe use of the Internet.

Together with our older visitors we experienced actual examples of public WiFi dangers.

We would like to wholeheartedly thank Papaki and Top.Host for such a productive cooperation.

Homo Digitalis team at Researcher’s Night 2019 consisted of the following members: Ms. Elpida Vamvaka, Mr. Manos Papadakis, Mr. Vyronas Kavalinis, Ms. Myra Kesidou, Ms. Despina Patsiokosta, Ms. Ioanna Spanaki, Ms. Eva Davaki, Mr. Konstantinos Liandroyannakis and Ms. Eleftheria Vamvaka.

We are looking forward to seeing you at next year’s Researcher’s Night.

On October 2, 2019 Homo Digitalis had the great honour and pleasure to meet Mr. Alexis Georgoulis, Member of the European Parliament (MEP) and his team lead at the EP, Mr. Manos Kalaintzis.

The discussion was very productive and we had the chance to get informed about updates on the question of the use of the application FaceApp raised by MEP Georgoulis earlier in July 2019  and the official response he received a few days ago by Commissioner Jourová on behalf of the European Commission.

We also talked about the actions and goals of Homo Digitalis and the importance in raising the awareness of Greek public regarding the protection of their personal data and privacy during the current digital age.

At the centre of the discussion was the new business model of the tech giants of on-line services, whose income come largely from targeted advertising based on the collection of personal data as well as the monitoring conducted by ad network providers and intermediaries and the use of cookies.

Finally, we  talked about Freedom Not Fear 2019 and the annual meeting of activists regarding the protection of personal data and privacy, which will take place between 8 – 11 November in Brussels.

We remind you that registrations are still open and you can apply for travel allowances. Very few seats are available. You can learn more on our website here (in Greek).

We would like to wholeheartedly thank MEP Alexis Georgoulis and Manos Kalaintzis for the interesting, constructive and productive discussion and meeting. It is satisfying and encouraging to notice that MEPs and their teams have such a strong interest in the protection of Human Rights in the modern digital era and we would be delighted to stay in contact in the near future.

We would be delighted to meet other MEPs and their teams in order to discuss and exchange ideas! ‘Freedom not Fear 2019’ appears to be a good occasion as many of our members will be in Brussels between 8-11 November 2019. You are more than welcome to contact us on info@homodigitalis.gr

On September 24, 2019 Mr. Konstantinos Kakavoulis represented Homo Digitalis in a seminar about the initial discussion regarding the newly adopted Law 4624/2019 on personal data.

Mr. Konstantinos Kakavoulis during his presentation and speech

The event was held by the​ Institute for Privacy Law, Data Protection, and Technology, established by the European Public Law Organization (EPLO) and the Athens Bar Association.

Athens Bar Associations’ events venue​ was full of professionals and people who wanted to get informed on this new legislation and the audience was highly engaged in the discussion.

Mr. Kakavoulis’s speech was focused on human rights violation, which may result from the newly adopted law.

A discussion followed, the coordinator of which was the President of the Hellenic Data Protection Authority, Mr. Konstantinos Menoudakos