LAUSR

I M A G E F R O M S H U T T E R S T O C K .C O M 45/2001 establishes the rules for data protection in the EU institutions and the creation of the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) as independent supervisory authority to monitor and ensure people's right to privacy when EU institutions and bodies process their personal data. The European Group on Ethics in Science and New Technologies (EGE) is an independent advisory body of the President of the European Commission that advises on all aspects of Commission policies and legislation where ethical, societal, and fundamental rights dimensions intersect with the development of science and new technologies. In 2015, the EDPS appointed the Ethics Advisory Group (EAG) “to explore the relationships between human rights, technology, markets, and business models in the 21 century.” Autonomous systems. We broadly define autonomous systems as systems that have the ability of substituting humans in supplying (contextual) information that the system may use to make decisions while continuously running. Depending on the nature, property, and use of this information, an autonomous system may impact moral rights of the users, be they single citizens, groups, or the society as a whole. The widespread use of AI techniques in the implementation of these systems has exacerbated the problem contributing to the creation of systems and technologies whose behavior is intrinsically opaque. In this article, we will stick to the notion of autonomous technology rather than with AI technology. Indeed, we are concerned with the autonomous decision-making capabilities of systems even if those capabilities are a consequence of the availability of more and more complex AI enabling technologies. The harm of digital society. The last years have witnessed an increasing rate of concerns on the impact of autonomous technologies on our societies. Economy, politics, and human being natural rights are endanWE LIVE IN the digital world, where every day we interact with digital systems either through a mobile device or from inside a car. These systems are increasingly autonomous in making decisions over and above their users or on behalf of them. As a consequence, ethical issues—privacy ones included (for example, unauthorized disclosure and mining of personal data, access to restricted resources)—are emerging as matters of utmost concern since they affect the moral rights of each human being and have an impact on the social, economic, and political spheres. Europe is at the forefront of the regulation and reflections on these issues through its institutional bodies. Privacy with respect to the processing of personal data is recognized as part of the fundamental rights and freedoms of individuals. Regulation (EC) The European Perspective on Responsible Computing DOI:10.1145/3311783