Digital Dignity Document Pool

Digital technologies can have a profound effect on our societies, but sufficient attention is rarely given to how certain applications differentiate between, target and experiment on communities at the margins. This document pool gathers resources for those that are interested in learning about and contesting the harms to dignity and equality that arise from uses of technology and data.

By EDRi · September 21, 2021

How can we live in dignity when technological ‘progress’ puts us at risk? What does it mean to strive for equality when technologies benefit some but marginalise others? How do we get justice when technology is used as a cloak for discrimination?

These questions and more underpin our work on “Digital Dignity”. Whilst dignity is often thought of as one of the most difficult rights to understand and apply, it can give us a useful lens to interrogate the problems associated with certain applications of AI and other digital technologies.

In this document pool we will be listing articles, documents and resources which relate to dignity in the digital environment:

“Human dignity is inviolable. It must be respected and protected.”

Article 1, European Charter of Fundamental Rights

Dignity is an important component of protecting our autonomy, our freedom, our self-respect and self-determination, others’ respect for us and of course, our rights to live equally, without being discriminated against, and with equitable access to justice. Developments in digital technology increasingly impact human dignity. Data about us can have a really profound impact on the ways in which we live our lives and whether we feel that our bodies and even our very existence are treated with respect.

Blogs from the Digital Dignity coalition

Read the blogs from EDRi and other members of the coalition about the formation and growth of our group, how we are working to collectively center the communities and voices that are most impacted by developments in technology, and the different angles and topics that make up our work. We'll be publishing more content to explore digital dignity from different perspectives as we go.

EDRi's work on the intersection of dignity and discrimination

Dignity is implicated in many uses of technology. Check out our broader work on issues of dignity when it comes to social media platforms, debiaising data, decolonising the digital rights field and more.

Key internal and external resources

 

Open letters

See the letters that EDRi has coordinated along with members of the digital dignity coalition and other civil society groups to call for respect for dignity and equality in EU laws and policies.

Get involved

  • Want to be a part of the Digital Dignity coalition? Please send a message to our co-ordinators: Ella Jakubowska, Sarah Chander and Fenya Fischer
  • Please note that the coalition is specifically intended to be a constructive and supportive space for activists, NGO staff or volunteers, advocates and campaigners working across human rights and social justice from a variety of anti-discrimination and/or inclusion perspectives. You don’t need to know anything about data, artificial intelligence or digital rights to join us.

 

  • Want to get involved in the related campaign against discriminatory biometric mass surveillance? Join the Reclaim Your Face campaign