Digital rights

Citizens live, communicate and conduct transactions in a digital environment that is very hard to regulate. Abuses of personal data and threats to privacy are constant. It is a constitutional obligation of the state to guarantee the security of citizens' private information.

In 2021, privacy consultants working for two Dutch universities issued a critical report card on Google's education apps, a set of classroom tools like Google Docs that are used by more than 170 million students and educators worldwide.

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), together with 72 NGOs and professional bodies, on Wednesday sent an open letter to the European Commission demanding it withdraw proposed child abuse legislation and replace it with a provision that secures privacy, security and free expression for all.

The footballer in his post thanked the medical staff & asked everyone to respect the privacy that the family needs at this critical moment

Digital rights violations have been rising across Southeastern Europe since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic with a similar pattern - pro-government trolls and media threatening freedom of expression and attacking journalists who report such violations.

Nineteen organisations from Southeast Europe have joined forces in a newly-established network that aims to advance the protection of digital rights and address the growing challenges posed by the widespread use of advanced technologies in society.

Man wearing a protection mask in the capital, Podgorica, Montenegro. Photo: BIRN/Samir Kajosevic

On Friday it said it would consider the appeal brought by the local NGO Civil Alliance against the decision to publish the names of people undergoing self-isolation, which the alliance said violated their constitutional right to privacy.

Τhe Israeli Professor and intellectual Yuval Noah Harari is optimistic about the scientific developments in the battle against coronavirus yet at the same time expresses his concern for the digital technologies that are all of a sudden introduced in peoples' daily lives due to the pandemic.

A total of 75 signatories, including Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN, have signed a letter asking social media and content-sharing platforms to preserve all data they've blocked or removed during the coronavirus pandemic and make it public for researchers and journalists in the future.

The Ekyklos think tank is organizing an online public debate titled "Privacy and Personal Data at the Time of Coronavirus," featuring the president of the European Court of Human Rights, Linos-Alexandre Sicilianos.
The debate will be screened live on Youtube, Facebook and ekyklos.gr on Thursday from 7 p.m.