Tag: financial exclusion

Abusing legal tools, hostile governments reach across borders to persecute opponents. Imagine waking up to discover that your bank accounts have been blocked and your assets frozen. Shortly thereafter, you learn that your family’s private information, including banking, travel, and communication records, has been shared with a foreign government seeking to undermine your political freedoms […]

(…) This compliance bottleneck can also paralyze global human rights groups. Lyudmyla Kozlovska, President of the Open Dialogue Foundation, says her organisation experienced this when platforms like PayPal, GoFundMe and Wise blocked their fundraising appeals for Ukraine during the critical first months of the 2022 Russian invasion. Using bitcoin, the foundation was able to bypass […]

“The re-elected Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party (ALDE) President Svenja Hahn called the vote “a disgrace”, warning that it “opens the door for mass surveillance of all private communication” and that “the surveillance of private chats pushed by EU states is a threat for our freedom and democracy.” Lyudmyla Kozlovska of the Open Dialogue […]

(…) The President of the Open Dialogue Foundation, Lyudmyla Kozlovska commented for EUTechLoop that the vote on Chat Control 1.0 should be viewed in a broader context of erosion of privacy in the EU: “That vote should trouble anyone who cares about how democracy in the EU works, not just about privacy. It’s the same […]

Authoritarian regimes, including states already under Western sanctions, exploit anti-money laundering rules, INTERPOL’s notice systems, and mutual legal assistance treaties to freeze accounts, access private data, and destroy the livelihoods of their critics in democratic countries. The system allows it because it was built on an assumption of good faith that no longer holds. On […]

“Chat Control 1.0 – a temporary derogation from ePrivacy rules designed to detect online child sexual abuse – was adopted by the European Parliament today. The regulation would remain in effect until 3 April 2028, providing a substantial buffer while lawmakers negotiate an agreement on the updated framework, Chat Control 2.0. (…) The President of the Open […]

Read the full article: euractiv.com

Read the full article: euractiv.com

At the Open Dialogue Foundation, we are currently conducting a joint research project with the Democratic Futures Project at the University of Virginia to explore that question. As part of this work, we are speaking with people across philanthropy and civil society about experiences with banking, compliance, financial access, privacy, and the broader pressures, including […]

The penultimate episode of the Bitcoin web series dedicated to startups is now online. For the first time, non-profit projects take center stage: three initiatives competing to defend privacy, human rights, and the integrity of public documents through decentralized technologies and Bitcoin. After three episodes dedicated to for-profit startups, which we covered in recent weeks, […]

In the ongoing debate over the so-called ChatControl — an EU proposal that would enable large-scale scanning of private online messages to detect illegal content — Daniel Eck, a German political commentator associated with the center-right CDU/CSU camp, has voiced his opposition. In his statement, Eck clearly rejected the concept of “anlasslose Chatkontrolle,” or chat […]

The Open Dialogue Foundation recently sat down with Bitcoin News to share how Bitcoin is being used as a lifeline against financial repression. In the interview, our president Lyudmyla Kozlovska described how authoritarian regimes weaponize financial systems to silence activists, and how Bitcoin in self-custody remains one of the few tools that enables humanitarian aid, […]

Executive Summary This submission responds to the European Commission’s consultation on data retention by service providers for criminal proceedings. The Open Dialogue Foundation (ODF) recognises the importance of effective tools for criminal investigations but strongly emphasises that blanket or indiscriminate data retention is unlawful, disproportionate, and ineffective, as repeatedly confirmed by the Court of Justice […]

“Every single country right now can weaponize data. Every single citizen can be easily weaponized — through their travel data, communication, and financial data. This must be fixed immediately.” urged Lyudmyla Kozlovska. The President of the Open Dialogue Foundation, in an interview with Bitcoin Magazine, explained how digital currency is becoming a key tool for […]

Authoritarians are weaponizing financial surveillance — and human rights activist Lyudmyla Kozlovska is fighting back. In this interview, Bitcoin Magazine Political Correspondent Frank Corva speaks with Kozlovska, President of the Open Dialogue Foundation, on how KYC/AML regulations are being misused to target dissidents, freeze aid, and enable global repression. From FATF overreach to the real […]