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September 6, 2025 · Peter Bernscherer · Share on Facebook · Share on Twitter
...regarding the open letter “Stop the chainsaw!”
The Association PCs für alle, who has been advocating for digital participation, media literacy, and low-threshold access to digital technologies for all people for years, expressly supports this open letter – and would particularly like to highlight one aspect that often receives too little attention in the public debate: the protection of Personal rights in the digital space.
Data protection is not a luxury, but a fundamental right.
The letter rightly points out that ongoing deregulation initiatives are intended to result in "employees having less control over their own data and their monitoring in the workplace being facilitated." For our association, this is a warning sign. Personal rights—the right to informational self-determination, to privacy, to control one's own data—are not mere technical details. They are the foundation upon which people can live freely, responsibly, and with dignity in a digital society.
Those people we help as an organization – the elderly, people with low incomes, people with a migration background – are particularly vulnerable if these protection standards are weakened. They often lack the legal resources or the technical knowledge to defend themselves against data misuse or excessive surveillance.
Omnibus packages as a problem for democracy
We are particularly critical of the fact that far-reaching changes to data protection and digital law are to be implemented as part of "omnibus packages" without broad public consultation. Laws that are opaque in their creation will not enjoy public trust – and digital trust is a prerequisite for the social acceptance of digitalization.
Our appeal
We join Chancellor Stocker in demanding that personal rights and data protection not be sacrificed to pressure from economic lobby groups. Digital participation requires that people can trust that their data is protected – whether as employees, consumers, or citizens. A society in which surveillance becomes the norm is not a society in which digital technologies serve humanity.
Vienna, March 17, 2026 – Peter Bernscherer
Here is the open letter www.kettensaege-stoppen.at/offener-brief
and here is the platform's website www.kettensaege-stoppen.at/