SEE Digital Rights Network – August 2025 Newsletter
2025-08-29
Dear Network members,
This month, too, all of us have been very active in the field of digital rights by organizing various events and creating interesting content.
The highlights:
Terrestrial Forum in Vranje, Serbia
The Terrestrial Forum 2025 took place in Vranje, Serbia, in the last week of August, bringing together more than 150 participants from across Southeast Europe. This biannual political and educational program, co-organized by the Collective Ministry of Space, A11 – Initiative for Economic and Social Rights, and the SHARE Foundation, once again connected local and regional actors around the shared pursuit of more just and sustainable societies. Over several days, participants explored climate and ecology, sustainable development, social justice, and digital rights through three main modules: Beyond technophilia and technophobia (examining the ethical, social, and environmental impacts of digitalization), Ecosystem of change (collective action and alternative practices for meaningful transformation), and Economy of exploitation (addressing how exploitation shapes contemporary economic, political, and social realities). The gathering provided a unique space for dialogue, exchange, and imagination of alternative futures, strengthening regional cooperation and solidarity.
In July 2025, Croatia’s Data Protection Agency (AZOP) levied a €320,000 fine against HEP‑Toplinarstvo after a user reported that, during a password reset, the service sent the user’s previously set password, stored in plain text, instead of a temporary one. A follow-up audit revealed that nearly 16,000 passwords were kept unencrypted, highlighting a serious GDPR violation. The agency concluded that HEP‑Toplinarstvo intentionally chose a system lacking basic security measures and failed to cooperate during the investigation. Additionally, AZOP imposed a €50,000 fine on another IT company for inadequate data protection following a hacking incident. Together, these penalties form part of a broader push in 2025, with AZOP issuing 12 fines totaling over €900,000 for GDPR breaches.
How North Macedonia’s Digitised Health System Leaves Vulnerable Patients Behind
Despite high hopes, North Macedonia’s digital health platform, Moj Termin, has not delivered on its promise to streamline appointments, particularly for elderly and marginalized women who struggle with the online system. Introduced in 2012 to modernize healthcare access, the platform remains underutilized, with most users relying on their family doctors to schedule appointments. NGOs such as HERA point to the system’s design flaws, including a lack of gender-sensitive planning and engagement with women users, that perpetuate digital exclusion, leaving some of the most vulnerable unable to access essential medical care independently.