Get involved in our campaign
Harnessing the power of people to mobilise to protect digital rights. Explore our active and past campaigns to hold power to account
This is not a regular petition, but an official “European Citizens’ Initiative” (ECI) run by EDRi on behalf of the European Commission. This means your signature must be officially verified by national authorities, according to each EU country’s specific rules. We cannot control the data that they require, since it is required by Regulation (EU) 2019/788 on the European citizens’ initiative for the purpose of confirming your signature. We can only use the information that you provide in Step 2 to contact you with updates, if you choose to enter it. Furthermore, our ECI signature collection system has been verified by the German Federal Information Security Office (BSI) to ensure it is compliant with the EU’s Regulation on ECIs. Please see our “Why ECI?” page for further details, and check out our privacy policy.
This ECI is open to all EU citizens, even if you currently live outside the EU (although there are special rules for Germany). Unfortunately if you are not an EU national, the EU’s official rules say that you cannot sign. Check https://reclaimyourface.eu other ways than non-EU citizens can help the cause.
Note to German citizens: It is possible to sign our ECI petition if you live outside the EU, but German rules mean that for German citizens specifically, your signature will only be valid if you are registered with your current permanent residence at the relevant German diplomatic representation. If you are not registered, then unfortunately your signature will not be counted. You can read more information about the rules. This rule does not apply to citizens of any other EU country.
Legally, if we reach 1 million signatures (with minimum thresholds met in at least 7 EU countries) then the European Commission must meet with us to discuss our proposal for a new law. They must then issue a formal communication (a piece of EU soft law) explaining why they are or are not acting on our proposal, and they may also ask the European Parliament to open a debate on the topic. For these reasons, a European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) is a powerful tool for getting our topic onto the EU agenda and showing wide public support for banning biometric mass surveillance practices.
Latest activities
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Who, What, Why? Your guide to all things ECI! #ReclaimYourFace
Calling all digital rights heroes: EDRi needs your support! As part of the Reclaim Your Face campaign, we are running a European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) to ban biometric mass surveillance practices in the EU. To be successful, we need to collect 1 million signatures. Read more to find out how we keep ECI data safe, and how your signature can make a big difference.
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Roma & Sinti rights, Resistance & Facial Recognition: RYF in Conversation…
For communities that have been historically sidelined, the promises of digitalisation can instead become a vessel for yet more discrimination and unequal treatment. Facial recognition in particular has a sinister and dark history which links to the persecution of Romani communities. If you missed our webinar on Roma and Sinti rights and the rise of facial recognition across Europe, you can catch up here and learn what the digital rights community can and should do!
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Romani rights and biometric mass surveillance
The rights of Romani people should be an important topic for anyone that cares about digital rights. In this blog, hear from experts in Roma, Sinti and digital rights about why facial recognition is an important issue (and what the rest of the digital rights community can learn), and check out the Reclaim Your Face campaign’s first ever resource in the Sinti language!
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Past campaigns
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SaveYourInternet.eu
Growing bigger and bigger in 2018, the SaveYourInternet.eu campaign managed by the EDRi network has become the main platform for concerned citizens wanting to contact EU policy makers about the proposed implementation of upload filters in the European Union.
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StopACTA.info
In February 2012, hundreds of thousands of people took the streets in several European cities in order to protest ACTA. The fight was successful, with the European Parliament dismissing the agreement in the same year.
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