Third EU Hackathon Held in Brussels, Focuses on Government Surveillance

28 hackers from 13 countries

A flock of 28 hackers, coders and web developers representing 13 different nationalities gathered in Brussels for the third edition of the EU Hackathon on Tuesday 24 and Wednesday 25, September. Their target? Government surveillance. Their motto? "Hack for your rights."

Past events have focused on issues like internet access in the wake of the Arab Spring, or on child safety online. This year's theme, chosen even before the PRISM scandal was exposed by whistleblower Edward Snowden, was government surveillance. Using their coding skills and datasets, such as corporate transparency reports, the hackers had to creatively explore ways to "shed light on the state of government surveillance in their country and exercise their democratic rights to due process and greater transparency."