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Notes What's going on in your country:
Please add your notes below
Convener / Participants / Contacts
everyone
Countries
France
Not a lot happened :-)
far-right surge: 1 in 5 French people voted far right, now biggest party in Parliament
no left-wing government although majority would have been there, austerity
algorithmic surveillance
hope: surge of anti-fascism, unity on the left improving, there is a “left programme”
Norway
not a EU member but adopts many laws
NGOs have problems getting heard, as they are not involved at the EU level
generally high trust in government, so little resistance
laws coming in from the EU level not transparently discussed
EFN is trying to sue the government on …
right to cash
steps towards establishing a sovereign tech fund, coalition building in order to get message across
Netherlands
Big concern: health data, grabbing and use of it, central biometric online database with ID data from passports, law not there yet and little interest in looking at the serious issues
fundamental issue: we are humans, not data – digitalisation is happening everywhere
Denmark
likes to be a digital frontrunner
issues on inclusion, no opt-outs
chat control: not passed yet of course, but Danish politicians dislike encrypted messaging and we need to work against that
protection of minors is an issue
Danish communes have used Google tech in “modern” education
much attention on the effects of dark patterns on minors
Brazil
In a country known for violence, there is more acceptance for surveillance
digital rights organisation are quite active, they have a coalition – “take my fact out of your target” (literally translated) is the headline used
Brazil is large and diverse, so it’s difficult to go everywhere, but there is good cooperation across the country
metal extraction to apply the digital industry with a lot of environmental harm
cooperation with environmental organisations
digital sovereignty is an issue – does the state have the awareness?
Kenia
sort of a bubble, young and tech-savvy population, IT people study in the US and work there
this was helped by a push to access to fast Internet
AI training companies come to Kenia and use young Kenians for data labelling, content moderation etc. for the whole African regions, for very low wages, ca. 1 $ per hour – harmful effects on the employees
Meta has been sued on the issues of content moderation, but Meta is claiming they can’t be sued in the country as they are not local
a system using Iris scanning for identification with crypto projects was sued against
Cyprus
a few initiatives and Open Source community exist
requesting more info regarding a direct democracy platform – encryption is apparently insufficient to protect voters from being identified
cyber weapons are made in Cyprus by large companies, little is known
Cyprus is affected by what is happening in the Middle East
Belgium
always looking for a new government :-) there are about six
add to that the hosting of EU institutions, it is a real labyrinth
like living in the heart of a huge storm of topics – interesting to observe
hard to find who has responsibility for any issue?
we're active in Brussels on topics about data privacy and ethics in digitalisation (amies du clic ethique)
we are discovering a lot of activists' association defending ethical digitalisation like Tactic asbl, Cemea and FIJ active in schools, Comite Humain du Numerique, Bxlug promoting free software more details on their websites
Italy
changes in government in the last few months – right-wing parties are strengthening hold on power
a lot of bias, media focusing on single sides, lack of counter-narratives and opposition figures
discourse against surveillance not very active
two proceedings:
security act has been limiting liberties for underprivileged communities and introduced new crimes, trying to stop the right to protest and exercise dissent
migrants cannot possess a SIM card
links with what’s going on in Albania, to where Italy is outsourcing the processing of migrants – input on this from here is requested
open source community wants to get active in local government
Portugal
chat control: campaign ongoing, no feedback from current government, stalled
mass surveillance, CCTV, being expanded even though criminality is not rising, Portugal is one of the safest countries
far-right party has been increasing the narrative of immigration being a threat, but there is counter movement pointing to the lack of evidence
police in vulnerable communities use drone surveillance
AI Act: Public admin has been including tools without much literacy about it. Literacy lacking in general and within gov. Main priority for us. Government itself is depending on Microsoft and Google tools. Public consultation regarding AI Act is focusing on profitable entities, not the few that are actually doing activism.
Data retention: 2 decisions from constitutional court. 1) Influenced by a complained presented by Edouardo. Retention period provided by law was considered disproportionate. Now there is inforced a law without any retention period.
Germany
(There are [too?] many Germans)
Past and future.
Past:
What did not happen:
- No data retention
- Germany helped against Chat Control
- Transparency law is not improved...
- Employees data protection is not yet properly regulated
Happening:
- Number plate scanning is extended without legal basis in Brandenburg¹
- Hesse¹ court challenges Palantir soft. being used
- Euro Court of Just. invalidated national data retention law
¹ these are names of German states
Future:
- New election: breaking point in govt. Conservatives are influenced by USA, are going up, likely to win next election.
- Data retention: some parties want to enforce it.
- Security package: face recognition. Tested in Train Stations.
- Digital health system is still a topic where the health ministry want to collect it all. For studies science... Also the electronic patient file was started
Change of government is coming after the Social Democrat – Green – (neo)liberal coalition broke apart last week, next one probably more conservative
Diaspora
- From Turkey with empathy for Kurdish, living in Germany
- From Germany, living in Scotland
Diaspora is the intersection of all that have been presented until here. We don't want to touch the elements already mentioned.
We think it's worth calling it "trans-national digital repression". What are the different marginalities uncovered by these repressions? Connections between countries.
Laws contagious. Authoritarian countries notably (Iran, Turkey, ...), how their regulations are being exported (first slowly, but gaining momentum) International cooperation is very welcome
Inter-group surveillance (not just from states). There are common issues we face. We need common ground to act with each other and not by ourselves.
Focus on absence of Eastern Europe
Point the huge void of Eastern Europe
Austria
State surveillance – state trojan
Around elections, there has been a try by centre-right party to implement state surveillance. Next big project is to prevent it from hapenning again. Human rights violation.
Right for analog life, prevent discrimination – We don't have it determined well for the moment. Try and find a way to include everyone, while still focusing on innovation
Cybersecurity vs repression
They wanted to implement centralisation of digital security. "State provides it", no consideration of ethical disclosure whatsoever.