Digital rights for civil society and civil society for digital rights: how surveillance technologies shrink civic spaces
Digital technology has transformed civic spaces - online and offline. In our digital societies, characterised by injustice and power imbalances, technology contributes to shrinking civic spaces. And to defend civic spaces against surveillance, we need strong and resourced civil society organisations and movements.
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Digital rights for civil society and civil society for digital rights: how surveillance technologies shrink civic spaces
Digital technology has transformed civic spaces - online and offline. In our digital societies, characterised by injustice and power imbalances, technology contributes to shrinking civic spaces. And to defend civic spaces against surveillance, we need strong and resourced civil society organisations and movements.
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European Parliament draws red line against biometric surveillance society
On Wednesday 14 June 2023, the European Parliament voted to ban most public mass surveillance uses of biometric systems. This is the biggest achievement to date for the eighty organisations and quarter of a million people who have supported the Reclaim Your Face campaign's demand to end biometric mass surveillance (BMS) in Europe.
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EU Parliament calls for ban of public facial recognition, but leaves human rights gaps in final position on AI Act
The final EU Parliament position upholds all of the fundamental rights demands which were added at committee level. Despite efforts to overturn it, the final position also maintains the committees' strong stance against biometric mass surveillance practices. But it is disappointing that the plenary missed the opportunity to increase protections when it comes to empowering people affected by the use of AI and the rights of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers.
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Bits of Freedom monthly update on human rights & tech: April 2023
Read through the most interesting developments at the intersection of human rights and technology from the Netherlands. This is the fourth update in this series.
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The EU must respect human rights of migrants in the AI Act
Amnesty International Secretary General Agnès Callamard has sent an open letter calling on the Rapporteurs and members of leading committees on the EU Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act) to prohibit the use of certain artificial intelligence (AI) systems which are incompatible with human rights of migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers in the AI Act.
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Missing: people’s rights in the EU Digital Decade
In June 2023, the European Union (EU) will adopt its first report on the state of the ‘Digital Decade’ – a plan launched in 2022 with digitalisation targets for business, public services and people’s digital skills. The Digital Decade reads more like a business plan than a policy programme.
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EU Parliament sends a global message to protect human rights from AI
Today, the Internal Market Committee (IMCO) and the Civil Liberties Committee (LIBE) committees took several important steps to make this landmark legislation more people-focused by banning AI systems used for biometric surveillance, emotion recognition and predictive policing. Disappointingly, the MEPs stopped short of protecting the rights of migrants.
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Will MEPs ban Biometric Mass Surveillance in key EU AI Act vote?
The EDRi network and partners have advocated for the EU to ban biometric mass surveillance for over three years through the Reclaim Your Face campaign. On May 11, their call may turn into reality as Members of the European Parliament’s internal markets (IMCO) and civil liberties (LIBE) Committees vote on the AI Act.
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Where artificial intelligence and climate action meet
The use of artificial intelligence (AI) has a major influence on climate action, climate change mitigation and the work of environmental defenders. It offers potential benefits, for example when it is used to enhance high-resolution mapping of deforestation, coral reef loss, and soil erosion. On the other hand, it poses a threat to the climate and its defenders when it leads to extraction of natural resources and when automated online surveillance is used to enhance the power of states and corporations to suppress climate activism and grassroots resistance.
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Moving from empty buzzwords to real empowerment: a framework for enabling meaningful engagement of external stakeholders in AI
The use of artificial intelligence (AI) is accelerating. So is the need to ensure that AI systems are not only effective, but also fair, non-discriminatory, transparent, rights-based, accountable, and sustainable – in short, responsible
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As AI Act vote nears, the EU needs to draw a red line on racist surveillance
The EU Artificial Intelligence Act, commonly known as the AI Act, is the first of its kind. Not only will it be a landmark as the first binding legislation on AI in the world – it is also one of the first tech-focused laws to meaningfully address how technologies perpetuate structural racism.
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Retrospective facial recognition surveillance conceals human rights abuses in plain sight
Following the burglary of a French logistics company in 2019, facial recognition technology (FRT) was used on security camera footage of the incident in an attempt to identify the perpetrators. In this case, the FRT system listed two hundred people as potential suspects. From this list, the police singled out ‘Mr H’ and charged him with the theft, despite a lack of physical evidence to connect him to the crime. The judge decided to rely on this notoriously discriminatory technology, sentencing Mr H to 18 months in prison.
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