Homo Digitalis talks to the newspaper Kathimerini about the body-worn cameras of the Hellenic Police and our related actions
The upgrade of the Police surveillance equipment is expected to be completed in the near future, as the tender for the supply of cameras has ended.
These are about 400 24-hour cameras to be installed on patrol cars, as well as 2,000 “wearable” cameras, i.e. integrated into the uniforms of police officers, which will be able to record at will and transmit live images to the operations centre using telecommunications networks.
Homo Digitalis spoke to Kathimerini and journalist Elvira Krithari about our actions together with Reporters United & The Press Project regarding the use of cameras from 2020 & 2021 and the investigation conducted by the Data Protection Authority since then. Our team was represented by Eleftherios Chelioudakis
We would like to thank the journalist for her interest in our actions! You can read her article here.
More about our relevant actions from 2020 & 2021, here.
Our participation in the summit "This Is What Police Tech Looks Like" of the JET Table of LSE in Belgrade
Last week, Homo Digitalis was in Belgrade to be present at the working groups held as part of the “This Is What Police Tech Looks Like” project, organised by the JET Table at The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).
It was a unique opportunity to meet with academics, activists and civil society organisations working in the fields of policing and border management, to exchange ideas and views, and to talk about our related activities! We would like to thank the organizers for their kind invitation!
Over the last four years, we and our partners have had open cases before the Data Protection Authority in these areas, involving:
1) the retention of electronic communications metadata that is contrary to the case law of the CJEU and the provisions of the Charter of Fundamental Rights (August 2019),
2) the procurement by the Hellenic Police of facial recognition technologies (March 2020),
3) the illegal retention of biometric passport data by the Hellenic Police in a central database (June 2020),
4) the violation of the provisions on the use of cameras by the EL.AS. in public places (May 2021),
5) the procurement of the intervention systems YPERION and KENTAYROS by the Ministry of Immigration and Asylum (February 2022); and
6) the procurement of social media platform monitoring software by the Coast Guard (February 2022).
We are honoured by the interest shown in our actions and we look forward to the immediate decisions of the DPAA on the above cases, which are of paramount importance for the protection of our Rights and Freedoms, as well as of the Republic.
You can learn more about the program here.
Homo Digitalis was represented at the meeting by our Board Secretary, Eleftherios Chelioudakis.