The rapid speed at which digital technologies are becoming increasingly connected and penetrate all areas of life also requires constant adaptation of legal regulations. This development also extends to the fighting of crime. Despite existing regulations at the regional level (for example, the Budapest Convention of the Council of Europe), negotiations have been underway for a year at the UN level on a new, globally applicable convention to combat cybercrime (UN Cybercrime Treaty). According to the current schedule, these negotiations are to be concluded in January 2024.

On 6. December 2022 the Council of the European Union will adopt its General Approach to the reform of the eIDAS regulation. Epicenter.works has obtained the text and issues a strong warning about the unprecedented risk and shortcomings of the new electronic identity system of the EU. The member-states-version of this important reform creates a dangerous and uncontrolled environment for the sensitive health, financial and identity data of all Europeans.

Today is a good day for the open internet and our privacy. The Austrian parliament voted in its EU committee to adopt a resolution that – given the Austrian constitution – has a binding effect on the position of the Austrian government not to agree to the proposal for the controversial child sexual abuse regulation (dubbed “chat control”), if it is not brought in line with fundamental rights.

With the publication of our annual transparency report we briefly revisit the year 2021. The second year of the pandemic was again very inspiring, busy and exciting for the team here at epicenter.works.

Although the team spent most of the year working from home, we never lost our sense of community thanks to our good internal infrastructure. We met for the occasional team afternoon at the office or out of doors for small celebrations of our successes.