ARTICLE: Below the Click: A Quiet Question for European Digital Rights

By Mr. Arvin Obnasca, ELGS/LUISS 2025 Summer School participant

Consumer neurotechnology is quietly entering European workplaces and homes. EEG headbands, neural wearables, and brain-computer interfaces can detect activity the user cannot perceive; activity that, in a sense, lies below the click of consent. Drawing on the German philosopher Hans Jonas, who argued that ethics must keep pace with actions whose effects we cannot fully foresee, this short article examines what such devices ask of European digital rights law. It traces the question through the GDPR, the EU AI Act and its harmonised standards, and the Council of Europe’s HUDERIA Methodology, presented not as a critique but as an invitation to careful thought.

Below the Click: A Quiet Question for European Digital Rights