LINKS: Development of the Digital Sovereignty Competences of Youth Workers

LINKS is a project that focuses on digital sovereignty for youth workers. Digital sovereignty is a concept that seeks to provide individuals with the ability to own their personal data and control its use. The aim of the project is to enable organisations working with young people and managing personal or sensitive data to:

1. Improve and strengthen their knowledge of data protection and help them to monitor and evaluate the use of the data they manage.
2. Support the goal of digital sovereignty in the EU and to offer NGOs and other groups managing personal/sensitive data a way to limit the risks of abuse or cyber-attacks by protecting their data.

The birth of this project stems from several major concerns:

• The majority of data managed by youth workers is of a personal and/or sensitive nature, as they often work with sensitive groups such as migrants, people with disabilities, minors etc. and thus possess personal and sensitive data (e.g. medical data).

• There is a risk of discrimination due to the processing of such data, which can lead to the undermining of the foundations of democracy (Advisory Group on Ethics, 2018).

• The increase of cyber threats is a major concern for institutions, organisations, NGOs etc. that manage sensitive data.

Based on these observations, it follows that it is essential to protect organisations that have to store and manage personal and/or sensitive data. Furthermore, although the EU GDPR has been implemented in the majority of organisations, it appears that many organisations are still having difficulties to protect their data and are not well aware about digital data protection.

Therefore, the LINKS project will directly and actively support youth workers in developing and improving their digital safety skills and competences through the following actions

1. The development of an online platform that will include innovative training on digital sovereignty and data protection. The aim is also to increase awareness about the importance of data protection.
2. The development of a digital game that will enable youth workers (and other organisations) to learn how to protect their own (workers’) data and that of the young people they work with.