We Successfully Completed Our Voluntary Awareness Actions in 10 Schools Across Attica for the Period October–December 2024!
During this school year, from October 2024 to December 2024, Homo Digitalis focused its voluntary awareness efforts on schools in Athens!
With the invaluable support of Education Consultant Ms. Christina Kalfoglou, Psychologist Ms. Elina Kardara, and School Consultant Ms. Maria Panta, we visited 10 schools (public and private junior and high schools) and conducted 16 presentations for approximately 1,400 students, educators, and parents on the topics digital footprint and cyberbullying.
We learned a great deal about the apps children use and the risks they face on various social media platforms. We also discussed the challenges they encounter when trying to report issues on these platforms, often without resolving their problems!
Students shared incidents of cyberbullying and online violence with us, and we talked about ways to address and support them. Educators, on the other hand, expressed their concerns and raised thought-provoking questions regarding the use of mobile phones and artificial intelligence tools in schools.
Yesterday, we concluded our awareness actions for the first trimester of the 2024–2025 school year with an informational event at the 59th Junior High School of Athens, where we spoke with teachers and members of the parents association and teachers about the digital footprint, new digital risks such as deepfakes, misinformation, disinformation, and echo chambers, as well as the Kids Wallet initiative proposed by the Ministry of Digital Governance!
A big thank you to our members, board members, and employees: Sofia Antonopoulou, Niki Georgakopoulou, Lamprini Gyftokosta, and Konstantinos Kakavoulis for their active participation and outstanding contribution to these initiatives!
Together, we are building a safer and more informed digital community!
Presentation to Educators in Larissa on Cyberbullying
On November 18th, at the invitation of the Educational Advisor for Primary School Teachers in Larissa, Ms. Vasiliki Pilatou, our member Anastasios Arampatzis delivered a presentation to sixth-grade teachers from Ms. Pilatou’s district on the topic of cyberbullying.
The educators expressed great interest in our initiatives and presentation, engaging with us in discussions on questions about cyberbullying as well as critical reflections on the current implementation of the Stop Bullying platform developed by the Ministry of Education, Religious Affairs, and Sports.
Homo Digitalis remains at the disposal of educators, parents, and students to inform them about their rights in the digital space and to highlight their concerns.
Elpida Vamvakas' speech at the 52nd Book Festival is now available on video!
Homo Digitalis has the great honor to be present at the 52nd Book Festival that took place at Pedion Tou Areos.
Specifically, on Thursday, September 19, our co-founder and President Elpida Vamvaka participated as a speaker in a round table organized at the main stage of the festival by the Association of Book Publishers (S.E.B.) & the Hellenic Comics Academy on the topic “Is art written with AI?”
The discussion was moderated by Panagiotis Papageorgiou (Lawyer, Member of the Greek Comics Academy) and Dimitris Doukoglou (illustrator, presenter, stand-up comedian). Other roundtable speakers include Vassilis Vlahokyrikakos (Associate Professor of Human-Computer Interaction) , Abraham Kawa (Author, Translator & Theorist of Culture) and George Nathaniel (IT and Management Consultant).
The videographer of the event is Dimitrios Bournous and we would like to thank him for the material he shared with us in this regard.
Watch the full statement from Hope here.
Homo Digitalis spoke at the Tech & Society Summit in Brussels
Last Tuesday 1/10, Homo Digitalis was in Brussels, participating at the Tech and Society Summit co-organised together with the European Digital Rights and more than other 40 organisations!
This event aimed to bring civil society’s voices to the forefront of EU’s digital policy debates. Together we are building this space to create a bridge between digital rights organisations and new policymakers to achieve accountable, people-focused policies that advance everyone’s digital rights.
Eleftherios Chelioudakis, represented us in the Summit speaking at the session “Visionary Round-table: Building an EU Digital Enforcement Strategy” organised by BEUC – The European Consumer Organisation and moderated by European Digital Rights’ Itxaso Domínguez de Olazábal! It was a unique opportunity for us to share our enforcement actions aiming at facilitating redress of harmed individuals in Greece!
Also, we actively participated in the Round-table Fundamental Rights in focus: Joint efforts for Spyware Regulation in the EU, organised by Centre for Democracy & Technology Europe and Amnesty International, sharing insights from the latest developments of the PREDATOR scandal in Greece and the related legislative initiatives of the Greek State.
We would like to sincerely thank the organizers for inviting Homo Digitalis to participate and share our views and actions on these important topics!
Participation of Homo Digitalis in the 52nd Book Festival
Homo Digitalis has the great honour to be present at the 52nd Book Festival taking place at the Pedion tou Areos.
Specifically, on Thursday 19 September at 20:15, our co-founder and President Elpida Vamvaka will participate as a speaker in a round table organized on the main stage of the festival by the Association of Book Publishers (S.E.B.) & the Hellenic Comics Academy on the topic “Is art written with AI?”
The discussion will be moderated by Panagiotis Papageorgiou (Lawyer, Member of the Greek Comics Academy) and Dimitris Doukoglou (illustrator, presenter, stand-up comedian).
Other important speakers of the round table include Vassilis Vlahokyrikakos (Associate Professor of Human-Computer Interaction) , Abraham Kawa (Author, Translator & Theorist of Culture) and George Nathaniel (IT and Management Consultant).
You can find out more about the full Festival programme here.
Statements by Homo Digitalis in Kathimerini on speech recording and online advertising
Journalist Giannis Papadopoulos in his article for Kathimerini newspaper discusses the recent revelations about the “Active Listening” function of the advertising company Cox Media Group.
Specifically, in a corporate presentation trying to promote this feature to its customers, Cox Media Group claimed that it could “eavesdrop” on conversations of users of mobile phones and other smart devices and with the help of artificial intelligence create targeted ads. The Company’s existing customer base includes major technology companies, including Facebook, Google and Amazon.
Lamprini Gyftokosta and Eleftherios Chelioudakis provided statements for Homo Digitalis to the reporter regarding both mobile phone settings and the challenges that arise in protecting the personal data and privacy of users through the dark patterns used by the tech giants.
We are very grateful to the journalist for his interest in our posts. You can read his article here.
In a related article-opinion hosted by Kathimerini newspaper and co-authored by Lillian Mitrou, Professor at the University of the Aegean and Vassilis Karkatzounis, PhD candidate at the University of the Aegean, important observations are provided regarding the challenges arising from the application of legislation in the complex environment of online advertising. You can read the article here.
Finally, we recall that as early as 2020, Homo Digitalis has already taken strategic legal action at the European level with our complaints against Google and IAB Europe in the context of their intrusive practices of targeted behavioural advertising. Our cases are pending before the Irish and Belgian authorities respectively and we expect decisions on these cases to be issued shortly. You can read more here.
New Book: #FakeYou – Don’t blame the people; don’t blame the Internet. Blame the power
Our friends from the digital rights civil society organization Xnet published recently the book “#FakeYou – Don’t blame the people; don’t blame the Internet. Blame the power”.
The book’s lead author is Simona Levi, while it is the activist’s guide to defeating fake news and blocking policies that use disinformation to curtail civil rights and freedoms.
You can freely read and download the book here.
We published an article on Nomiki Bibliothiki's website about CSAR
This is a crucial period for the proposed European Regulation on preventing and combating child sexual abuse online (Child Sexual Abuse Regulation -CSAR).
In the context of these important developments, our co-founding members Elefterios Chelioudakis and Stefanos Vitoratos prepared a detailed article for the NB Daily website in order to highlight the relevant issues.
We would like to thank the editorial team of Nomiki Bibliothiki for their cooperation.
You can read the article here.
We give a lecture at the OSCE's three-day training seminar on the protection of human rights at the borders
The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) organizes next week its training course for human rights defenders working at international borders in Warsaw! The three-day training course aims to enable human rights defenders to understand the human rights implications of border technologies and to improve their skills in collecting and verifying information through various means, including new technologies, for effective human rights monitoring at borders.
On a pro bono basis, Homo Digitalis and HIAS Greece will give a lecture during the training course related to our great success with the KENTAUROS and HYPERION case!
Our lecture titled “Combating Centaurs and Titans – Leveraging Data Protection Law to Counter Intrusive Surveillance in Migration” will focus on how data protection law can be strategically employed to challenge invasive surveillance technologies used in migration. Eleftherios Chelioudakis will represent Homo Digitalis in this lecture.
We would like to thank the organizers for their kind invitation, as well as HIAS Greece for the great collaboration.
You can find more information about the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) here.