A group of professors, post-doctoral researchers and doctoral candidates from the Faculty of Law, Economics and Finance joined the 2018 Computers, Privacy and Data Protection (CPDP) conference, with the University of Luxembourg an official partner of the event together with universities and research institutes from around the world.
Hosted from 24 to 26 January in Brussels, the conference was organised under the theme of the “Internet of Bodies”, with privacy and security, big data, blockchain, cybercrime, and artificial intelligence among the topics discussed.
A particular concern of this year’s conference was the upcoming EU General Data Protection Regulation, which will become applicable across the bloc on 25 May. Prof. Mark Cole participated in panels on GDPR implementation as well as the enabling/disruptive role of technology in the context set up by this regulation. Fellow speakers included MEP Jan Philipp Albrecht, and representatives from the European Commission and national data protection authorities as well as academia, private industry and lawyers. Dr Andra Giurgiu of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust moderated one of the panels.
Platform of exchange
As the number of tech companies and applications, and therefore the amount of digital data gathered, increases, issues of data protection also extend into the field of law enforcement and the production of evidence. On day one of CPDP, criminal law professor and FDEF Dean Katalin Ligeti participated in a multi-stakeholder discussion on the slated “European Production Order”, an initiative designed to facilitate law enforcement access to electronic evidence held by tech companies in another EU member state whilst guaranteeing the fundamental rights of investigative targets.
The conference was also an opportunity for junior researchers to showcase their work, with Prof. Cole discussing papers submitted to the European Data Protection Law Review (EDPL) Young Scholar Award.
Bridging the academic-practice divide, the CPDP Conference, which annually more than 1,000 participants, offers a platform of exchange not just between researchers on the latest trends in their field but also between research and the public and private sectors. For further details and a full list of conference partners, please visit the conference website. Panel discussions are being made available to watch on demand on YouTube.
