The 13th Annual European Data Protection & Privacy Conference: Reflecting on Five Years of the GDPR and Charting the Future of Tech Regulation in Europe

Our European Data Protection & Privacy Conference returned for its 13th year in Brussels on 5th December 2023.

As data-driven technologies continue to advance at unprecedented pace, protecting individuals’ personal information and ensuring their privacy remains a top priority for lawmakers and businesses worldwide. As the end of this legislative cycle in Europe nears and five years after the implementation of the GDPR, the 13th Annual European Data Protection & Protection Conference was both reflective and forward-looking, exploring the challenges, successes, and lessons learned regarding tech regulation these past few years, and discussed how all stakeholders in the data privacy realm can continue to work towards a future where privacy remains a cornerstone of our data economies and societies.

"In an increasingly digital world, new data-driven technologies and services must adhere to requirements of data protection by design and by default.” Didier Reynders, European Commission for Justice, reflecting on the theme of one of the conference’s panels: Promoting privacy innovation to unleash the power of data.

Providing a continuous exploration into the ever-evolving realm of data protection and privacy, the conference highlighted the next trends and priorities in ensuring individual’s trust in digital tech, the importance of interoperability with various data privacy rulebooks worldwide and the role of privacy innovation as a powerful catalyst for progress. The conference also featured thought-provoking discussions on the delicate balance required to ensure that the use and deployment of AI technologies in Europe do not compromise our fundamental rights. 

“We have done the regulation part. Now we need to get the implementation right. Businesses need it, citizens deserve it, public institutions should provide it. If we can get this right, the best days of our digital world are yet to come” Mathieu Michel, Belgian Secretary of State for Digitization, in charge of Administrative Simplification, Privacy and Building Administration on the priorities for the upcoming Belgian Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

Along with Commissioner Reynders and Secretary of State Mathieu Michel, we had the pleasure to hear from:

Wojciech Wiewiórowski, European Data Protection Supervisor

Olivier Micol, Head of Unit, Data Protection, DG Justice, European Commission

Bruno Gencarelli, Head of Unit, International Affairs and Data Flows, DG Justice, European Commission

Clarisse Girot, Head of the Data Governance and Privacy Unit, OECD

Guido Scorza, Member of the Board, Italian Data Protection Authority

Morgane Donse, Deputy Director International Data Flows, UK Government

Alexis Leautier, AI Technology Expert, CNIL

Peter Eberl, Deputy Head of Unit, Cybersecurity and Digital Privacy Policy, DG CONNECT, European Commission

Naomi Lefkovitz, Senior Privacy Policy Advisor, Information Technology Lab, NIST, U.S. Department of Commerce

Elise Houlik, Chief Privacy Officer, Intuit

Jade Nester, Head of Data Public Policy, Europe, TikTok

The full list of speakers and themes discussed at the conference can be found here. 

We would like to take thank everyone who participated, along with our event sponsors: Baker McKenzie, Broadcom, BSA | The Software Alliance, Intuit, Microsoft , TikTok and the pre-conference dinner sponsor, Workday.

Please contact the team at dataprotectionconference@forum-europe.com to find out about how to become involved in the 2024 edition of this conference, and sign-up to receive our latest news here.

We look forward to welcoming you at another event soon!