Homo Digitalis speaks for the 3rd consecutive year at RightsCon
Homo Digitalis speaks for the third consecutive year at RightsCon, the largest international conference for the protection of Human Rights in the modern digital age!
This year we are hosting our own session entitled “How to beat a Centaur? A closer look into technology-led border management in Greece”, in which we will talk about the use of new technologies, such as the KENTAYROS surveillance system, in the field of border management in Greece.
More than 1850 applications were received from organisations in 132 countries. The selection of our proposal by the organisers is a great honour and is another important recognition of our actions and our contribution to the protection of digital rights at an international level.
Our Board Secretary, Eleftherios Chelioudakis, will represent us at the session. We would like to thank the organizers for accepting our proposal!
RightsCon2023, organized by Access Now for the twelfth time this year, will take place with a physical presence in Costa Rica, while online participation is also possible. You can register and learn more about the program here.
Our speech at REDA 2023 at the European University Cyprus
The important international conference REDA 2023 (Regulation and Enforcement in the Digital Age) is taking place on May 5th at the European University Cyprus!
There our member and lawyer Stergios Konstantinou will participate with a speech in the thematic session “EDPB: Binding Dispute Resolution on the WhatsApp case”.
You can find out more information about the conference programme and the free registration to attend the conference in person here.
Our speech at the Infocom Security Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Personal Data and Cybersecurity
For yet another year, Homo Digitalis has the great pleasure to be present at the Infocom Security Conference! The 13th edition of the conference, which is a benchmark in the field of information technologies in Greece, will take place on April 26 & 27 at the Athens Conservatory.
Our member, Dimitris Dosas, Infrastructure and Security Engineer will represent us in the 3rd session of the 1st day of the conference in the discussion panel “ArtificialIntelligence – CyberSecurity – DataProtection. where participants will highlight all the challenges and aspects related to AI and its correlation with security and privacy.
The panel includes leading experts, moderated by the excellent Vassilis Vassilopoulos, Journalist & DPO of ERT.
-Iliana Kostis Lawyer, PhD, University of Athens, Greece. Aegean Lawyer, PhD in Personal Data and Artificial Intelligence,
-Athanasios Kosmopoulos – Data Protection Officer of the Ministry of Digital Governance, National Representative at the European Cybersecurity Competence Center,
-Spyros Tassis, President of the Hellenic Association for Data Protection and Privacy (HADPP), and
-Leonidas Kanellos – President DPO Network.
We would like to thank the organizers for their kind invitation! You can register for free and learn more, here.
Our Educational Talk at the University of Patras on Artificial Intelligence & Dark Patterns
Today, Stergios Konstantinou and Konstantinos Kakavoulis spoke at the CSI-COP project of the University of Patras on the processing of citizens’ data by AI and the influence of Dark Patterns on our online behaviour.
The event was attended by renowned data protection professionals, University professors, researchers and members of the Data Protection Authority.
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.
Our educational talk on AI & border management
Last month, we received an invitation from the Greek Council for Refugees and the European Network Against Racism Aisbl (ENAR) to speak at the European Parliament Office in Greece about Homo Digitalis’ actions in the field of migration and border management, as well as about the relevant provisions of the proposed EU regulation on AI!
It was a great pleasure to exchange ideas and views with representatives of CSOs, journalists, academics and other stakeholders who were present as well as to discuss the #ProtectNotSurveil campaign of European Digital Rights, Access Now, Platform for Undocumented Migrants (PICUM) and Refugee Law Lab, of which we are members!
We would like to thank the organizers for the great cooperation! Our Board Secretary, Eleftherios Chelioudakis, represented us, presenting our work at the event.
You can learn more about the #ProtectNotSurveil Campaign here.
Participation & Speech at the event celebrating 20 years of EDRi in Brussels
On 21-22 March Homo Digitalis was in Brussels to celebrate the birthday of European Digital Rights!
It was way back in 2003, when a handful of organisations and activists from 7 countries decided to found it! Twenty wonderful years later, full of dynamic interventions in the field of digital rights protection, EDRi has grown and its unique network of organisations now consists of 47 organisations in more than 22 countries!
At this great celebration, EDRi and its important contribution were spoken about by the Executive Vice President of the European Commission Margrethe Vestager, the President, Vice President and Director of EDRi, Anna Fielder, Thomas Lohninger and Claire Fernandez, respectively, Signal Technology Foundation President Meredith Whittaker, MEPs from different political parties, and many important contributors to EDRi’s activities, such as its former Director Joe McNamee and co-founder Sjoera Nas!
It is a huge honour for Homo Digitalis to be invited to talk about our actions and experiences! EDRi and its network were the main inspiration for the creation of Homo Digitalis in 2018, and we are honored to be its Greek member!
Homo Digitalis was represented by our President and Secretary of the Board Elpida Vamvaka and Eleftherios Chelioudakis, with the latter giving a speech about Homo Digitalis’ active participation in the EDRi network already in 2018.
Talk about DORA and NIS2 in an educational webinar
On March 29th, 15:00 – 17:00 GMT, Homo Digitalis will have the great pleasure to participate in the online webinar organized by Open Data Kosovo in the field of cybersecurity!
There we will talk about recent legislative initiatives at EU level, such as the DORA Regulation and the revised NIS2 Directive, while experts will also talk about the current situation in the neighbouring country.
Our team will be represented by Anastasios Arampatzis and Eleftherios Chelioudakis.
Free Registration here and more information about the event here.
The webinar is produced in the framework of the project “Increasing Civic Engagement in the Digital Agenda – ICEDA” with the support of the European Union, the South East Europe (SEE) Digital Rights Network and the SHARE Foundation!
Participation in a speech at the Nikos Poulantzas Institute
Tomorrow, Tuesday 14/3, Stefanos Vitoratos representing Homo Digitalis will participate in the series of events of the Nikos Poulantzas Institute “Workshops on Technologies – Tuesdays of March” and more specifically in the thematic “Are there new (digital) rights? What is the role of the state?”
The workshops are held in person and aim to explore from different perspectives what better/more democratic, fairer, inclusive technologies might mean.
We look forward to seeing you tomorrow and discussing in person!
More information and registration here.