Balkan Insight in an article by journalist Eleni Stamatoukou published statements by Homo Digitalis on the provisions of the proposed European legislation to restrict the circulation of child exploitation material on the internet.

You can read Homo Digitalis’ statements here.

You can read a letter to the European Commission co-signed by Homo Digitalis together with 71 other organisations here.

Homo Digitalis participated in a research report by the Mediterranean Institute of Investigative Journalism (MIIR) on the use of new technologies in the field of border management.

Our organisation provided interviews to MIIR researchers in order to explain the important challenges that arise in terms of the protection of Human Rights, and to highlight the ways in which new technologies are used in the field of border management.

The research has been published in three parts, namely 1: The ecosystem of European biometric surveillance and monitoring data, 2: Trapped in digital surveillance systems, and 3: Automation and Surveillance in Fortress Europe.

You can read the survey here.

Homo Digitalis thanks MIIR for the recognition shown to our organisation’s expertise and knowledge in the field of rights protection in the area of border management.

On December 24, Konstantinos Kakavoulis, co-founding member and treasurer of Homo Digitalis, gave an interview representing our organization to journalists Lydia Emmanouilidou and Katy Fallon for Al Jazeera’s reportage. We would like to thank the journalists for their interest in our activities and their excellent cooperation.

The report focuses on the surveillance systems that will be installed in the new closed refugee facilities, such as the KENTYROS system, among others.

You can read the interview here.

Homo Digitalis has already taken significant actions since the summer of 2021 and is researching these systems together with the European Digital Rights organisation.

In the summer of 2021 Homo Digitalis joined forces with European Digital Rights (EDRi) to jointly investigate the surveillance systems to be installed in the new closed refugee facilities.

Two of these, Hyperion and Centaurus, are expected to be the cause of significant challenges to the rights and freedoms of people living or being housed in these facilities.

I want to know more about these systems:

In particular, the Hyperion system will be the asylum seeker management system with regard to all the needs of the Reception and Identification Service. It will be responsible for access control (entry – exit by showing an individual card of a migrant, NGO member, worker and simultaneous use of a fingerprint), for monitoring benefits per migrant using an individual card (food, clothing supplies, etc.) and for movements between different accommodation facilities.

The Kentauros system concerns the implementation of an integrated digital system for the management of electronic and physical security around the perimeter and inside the premises, using cameras and Artificial Intelligence Behavioral Analytics (AI) algorithms. It includes the following services, among others: signalling of perimeter intrusion alarms using cameras and motion analysis algorithms, signalling of illegal behaviour alarms of individuals or groups of individuals in assembly areas inside the premises, and use of drones and other systems for the detection of unauthorised behaviour of individuals or groups of individuals.

Homo Digitalis together with EDRi started to research these systems in the summer of 2021 by gathering publicly available information regarding the characteristics of these systems and the timetable for their development and installation in the new closed refugee structures on the websites of the Ministry of Digital Governance, the Ministry of Migration and Asylum and the Diavgeia website.
As the available information was very limited, in October 2021 Homo Digitalis submitted a request for information and access to documents before the Secretary General for Asylum Seekers of the Ministry of Immigration and Asylum, Mr Logothetis, which we also communicated to the President of the Personal Data Protection Authority, Mr Menoudakos. With this request we asked the Ministry of Immigration and Asylum to provide us with the relevant documents setting out the details regarding the work plan and the cost of these systems. We also requested to be informed regarding the fulfilment of the obligation of the Ministry of Immigration and Asylum as Data Controller to prepare a data protection impact assessment, as set out in Article 35 of the General Data Protection Regulation and the relevant provisions of the implementing law 4624/2019, as well as to inform us of the processing basis that the Ministry of Immigration and Asylum will seek to use.

Up to the day of publication of this article, our request remains unanswered, despite the fact that it has been given a regular protocol number. Homo Digitalis together with EDRi and other civil society organisations will take significant action in this regard in early 2021.

International media coverage

International media have shown significant interest in our actions with Al Jazeera covering our actions and the BBC devoting part of its Newshour to report on our actions. And The Guardian had reported on the challenges posed by these systems in a report in early December.

It is a great honour for Homo Digitalis international media to cover our actions and highlight their importance not only on a national but also on a pan-European level.

What actions has Homo Digitalis taken to date?

On June 26 2019, Homo Digitalis’s Katerina Pouliou, had an interview on PARAPOLITICA 90,1 FM radio with the journalist G. Houdalakis from “Noris” (Early) radio broadcast and discussed the currently interesting issues arisen from elections and the processing of personal data!

You can now listen to the interview on our YouTube channel here (in Greek).