Digital rights

The challenge of mixing ethics with algorithms

European Association for Digital Transition Rights and freedom , , ,
ethics-with-algorithms

Development of the fourth industrial revolution, with the continual expansion of big data, artificial intelligence and algorithms, poses enormously important challenges that far transcend the world of technology. A new society is being shaped that requires a new social pact, based on an ethical commitment in the use of algorithms, with full respect for fundamental human rights and adaptation of these basic protections to the digital environment. 

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What if the Google search engine unjustly harms a person’s reputation? Keys to ‘the right to be forgotten’

European Association for Digital Transition Rights and freedom , , ,
right-to-be-forgotten

The Spanish Constitutional Court has just endorsed, in a judgment on June 27, 2022, what is known as the ‘right to be forgotten’, declaring previous decisions in regard to this by the Supreme Court and the National High Court to be unconstitutional. Thus, the Constitutional Court has positioned itself in support of arguments made by the Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD), which in turn protected a Spanish businessperson affected by negative comments published in the United States and accessible via the Google search engine.  

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Consumer rights in the digital age: the mistake of letting your guard down

European Association for Digital Transition Rights and freedom , ,
consumer-rights

Consumer policies don’t usually get much attention from the media or in political debates, yet they affect realities that are the backbone of daily life for most citizens. From the moment we get up to the time we go to bed, we establish consumer relations, sometimes almost unconsciously, in which we have a series of rights.

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Internet and minors: Europe must react

European Association for Digital Transition Rights and freedom , ,
internet-and-minors

In the digital economy we are all, several times a day, a product. Because if the product is free, the product is us. We’re all more or less aware of this reality, which years ago went unnoticed. But we are still acting as if we were blindfolded. An Internet search engine, our favourite social network, the blue dot we follow on the map when we visit another city… we think everything is free, but it isn’t. Paying with data is paying, and with our data large technology platforms, from the United States or China, are building empires that now border on monopolies. 

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Digital rights of minors online

European Association for Digital Transition Rights and freedom , ,
digital-rights-of-minors

The Fundación ANAR (abbreviation for Ayuda a Niños y Adolescentes en Riesgo, a group that helps at-risk children and adolescents) has been working for more than half a century to ensure promotion and defence of the rights of children and adolescents within the framework of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. In recent years, our work has been transformed by the impact of technology, which has a transversal effect on all the problems found in childhood and adolescence.

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World Children’s Day: the big tech business model is toxic for children and adolescents

European Association for Digital Transition Rights and freedom , , ,
world-children’s-day

The digital environment should be friendly and safe for minors. However, reality shows that websites and social networks have become a risk for children and adolescents, who suffer online from  harassment, violence, intimidation… and are exposed to all kinds of content, from inappropriate advertisements to extreme pornography. Meanwhile, their data is commercialised by the large platforms that make up the Internet, who take little action to control these serious problems.  

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The EADT, with support from the European Commission, organises an event on the digital rights of children and adolescents

European Association for Digital Transition Rights and freedom , , ,
digital-rights-of-children

World Children’s Day is again being celebrated this coming November 20th, a date chosen by the United Nations to commemorate the day in 1959 when the Declaration on the Rights of the Child was adopted. On this occasion, the European Association for Digital Transition, EADT, in collaboration with the European Commission, has organised the event “Digital Rights of Minors Online”. It will take place on November 15th at the headquarters of the Representation of the European Commission in Spain, and can also be followed in streaming. 

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“We need awareness, so it’s good for Facebook’s scandals to be known”

European Association for Digital Transition Rights and freedom , , , ,
facebook’s-scandals

The vice president of the European Association for Digital Transition, Ana Caballero, was recently interviewed on the video blog La España que reúne, a civil society group that defends consensus around the major values in the Spanish Constitution of 1978. In her comments, Caballero spoke about the principles that drive the European Association for Digital Transition, with a special section dedicated to the latest Facebook’s scandals. 

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Digital Rights Charter: the preamble to reform of the Spanish Constitution?

European Association for Digital Transition Rights and freedom , , ,
reform-of-the-spanish-constitution

Over the past few decades we have witnessed a series of social, economic, and technological changes that are difficult to assess with such little historical perspective. Technology has surely been the most important factor in these processes. The generalisation of computer devices and telecommunications infrastructures has had multiple effects on virtually all aspects of social and economic life, in the private as well as the public sphere. We live in a world that, as expressed by Nicholas Negroponte, has become digital.

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Citizen participation and the future of the EU: An opportunity at the Conference on the Future of Europe

European Association for Digital Transition Democratic quality , , , ,
conference-on-the-future-of-europe

Two current phenomena – the cyclical change the EU has entered following Brexit and the outbreak of COVID-19 and the need to improve the participatory mechanisms in liberal democracies – largely explain the launch, at the end of 2020, of the Conference on the future of Europe. We can define this as a large forum which, over more than a year, gives European citizens a channel to express their positions and recommendations on major issues that are already marking the future of the Union and of the entire planet. This is a good opportunity, therefore, for citizen’s to participate in EU debates, which are often accused of being removed from societal realities.

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