The first edition of the Hack-the-Data-thon with focus on facial recognition held at MWC23 by the Digital Future Society culminates in success

• “Hack-the-Data-thon” is an innovative exercise that fulfils the objective of showing how biometric facial recognition applications are designed with the updated European privacy regulations in mind.
• The Secretary of State for Digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence, Carme Artigas, celebrated the fact that Spain is a country that leads the way in ethical and sustainable technologies, proof of which is the AI Sandbox, the only one of its kind in Europe.

March 1, 2023

The team from the company ‘Herta Security’, made up of Javier Rodríguez Saeta, José Torija Martí, Diego Viqueira and Laura Blanc Pedregal, has won the first prize in the “Hack-the-Data-thon” (#DFSDataChallenge23), held on 28 February 2023 at MWC 23 and promoted by Mobile World Capital Barcelona through the Digital Future Society programme, which is supported by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation of the Spanish Government.

The objective of this pioneering exercise was to demonstrate the adaptation of the design and development of biometric facial recognition applications to evolving EU regulations on the uses of Artificial Intelligence in applications that may pose a risk to citizens’ privacy, in line with 27 points raised by the organisation.

The award was presented by Carme Artigas, Secretary of State for Digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence of the Government. Artigas said: “We would like to thank Digital Future Society, Mobile World Capital Barcelona, for taking the initiative and organising this pioneering exercise, which shows that it is possible to innovate while maintaining certain rules”. “This hackathon,” he continued, “shows that it is possible to develop technology that is ethical and respectful of human beings. This initiative is a pioneer in Spain and Europe. Digital Future Society accepted the challenge of organising it. The rest of the companies participating in the hackathon were congratulated, as they have faced an extreme challenge in only 8 hours”.

Montse Guardia, Director of Strategy and Head of Society at Mobile World Capital Barcelona, emphasised that “the proposals that have been presented are of high added value. The “Hack-the-Data-thon”, has allowed us to show the good work of the technology companies that have participated, which have the flexibility to adapt and solidity and the preparation of their teams to design and adapt their solutions to regulations and challenges in real situations with a clear respect for the privacy of the data of their customers and users”.

The General Manager of ‘Herta Security’, Javier Rodríguez, assures that “we are proud to receive this award. Our project has been based on adapting the functionalities of our biosurveillance application to comply with all European standards”.

The Secretary of State for Digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence concluded the Hackathon on security in facial recognition systems by adding “with this Hackathon we have shown that the ethical development of Artificial Intelligence is possible”.

The second prize was awarded to the Veridas team, formed by Leire Arbona, Jorge Somolinos, Guillermo Barbadillo Villanueva, Paco Zamora, Fausto Lopez, Oliver Landa, Mariona Campmany.

The experienced multidisciplinary jury was composed of Beatriz Soto Álvarez, Deputy Director of Communication and Institutional Relations at INCIBE; Mónica Espinosa Garcés, Director of the Centre for Innovation and Competence in Cybersecurity of the Catalan Cybersecurity Agency; Isabelle Hupont Torres, official scientist at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre; Marta Duelo Alfonso, Director of Mobile World Capital Barcelona; Mari Carmen García-Calvillo Moreno, Director of Data Governance and Institutional Knowlage Hospitalet Municipality; Belén Arribas Sánchez, independent lawyer, founder and start-up mentor; Paul Van Branteghem, co-founder of Spain IA; Gabi Urrutia, Vice President of Security at Halborn and Juantomás García Molina, Director of Foresight at SNGULAR.

The recognition of the financial award was accompanied by innovative statuettes made in 3D printing by Ayudame3D.