Press releases & Publications

This EDPS comic book provides a visual insight into the concept of digital ethics and is available to read in both web and mobile versions.

Speech by Giovanni Buttarelli at the Public Session of the International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissionners 2018, Debating Ethics: Dignity and Respect in Data Driven Life, Brussels, Belgium (check against delivery)

Speech by Tim Cook, Apple CEO, at the Public Session of the International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissionners 2018, Debating Ethics: Dignity and Respect in Data Driven Life, Brussels, Belgium (check against delivery)

The European Data Protection Supervisor presents: The cartoon introduction to digital ethics. This EDPS comic book provides a visual insight into the concept of digital ethics and is available to read in both web and mobile versions.

Wednesday 24 October 2018
12:30- 13:15
European Parliament (Room PHS3C050 - opposite the European Parliament Hemicycle) 

The European Data Protection Supervisor, Giovanni Buttarelli, would like to invite you to a press conference during the 2018 International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners (ICDPPC) in Brussels.

In addition to Giovanni Buttarelli, key speakers will be present at the press conference:

• Anita Allen, Professor of Law and of Philosophy;
• Pascale Fung, Professor at the Department of Electronic & Computer Engineering, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology;
• Tristan Harris, Co-founder of the Centre for Humane Technology; and
• Elizabeth Denham, UK Information Commissioner.

The presentations will be followed by a Q&A session.
 

Link to the press release

The press release is available here.

The September edition of the EDPS Newsletter covers all you need to know before you arrive in Brussels this October at the International conference. Read it here.

Read the result of the consultation.

The following conference and information leaflets are now available to download and to print.

Giovanni Buttarelli with Ambassadors and colleagues, Belvue Museum, Brussels

As part of the EDPS 2015-2019 strategy, the Ethics Advisory Group is set up with the mandate to explore the relationships between human rights, technology, markets and business models in the 21st century.

The EAG has now published its Report 2018.

On 25 September 2017, in the margins of the 39th International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners in Hong Kong, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Privacy, Digital Asia Hub and the European Data Protection Supervisor hosted a meeting with a difference.
Our aim with this meeting was to start a conversation with people from around the world about the values that they think underpin privacy in their countries to see what the similarities and differences are.

The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS), Giovanni Buttarelli, and the Chairman of the Commission for Personal Data Protection of the Republic of Bulgaria (CPDP), Ventislav Karadjov, would like to extend their warmest congratulations to the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data in Hong Kong, who hosted this year’s thought provoking edition of the International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners (ICDPPC).

Preparations for the next International Conference, to be hosted by the EDPS and the CPDP in October 2018, will now proceed in earnest.

Giovanni Buttarelli, EDPS, said: “One of our biggest challenges as data protection and privacy regulators today is how to respond to the way in which the digital arena is changing our mission in relation to data protection and privacy. The 2018 International Conference will address this challenge by asking whether an ethical approach is needed to regulate the digital world and, if so, how this approach might be developed and implemented. This is a pivotal moment and we must act to ensure that technology is designed and developed to serve humankind and not the other way around.”

Companies and governments are beginning to take advantage of technological developments related to the internet of things, big data, robotics and artificial intelligence. Though these developments can bring many benefits for individuals and society, these benefits depend on ensuring that our values, based on a common respect for the individual and human dignity, remain a core component of innovation. The 2018 International Conference will aim to address these issues by facilitating an open and transparent conversation at global level, and across many different disciplines, on Digital Ethics.

Ventislav Karadjov, Chairman of the CPDP, said: “The International Conference brings together representatives from more than one hundred privacy and data protection authorities around the world. In this era of unprecedented change, where the political and social importance of privacy and data protection in the international arena are higher than they have ever been, it will provide the ideal forum to kick-start the movement towards ensuring respect and dignity for the individual in the digital environment.”

Inspired by the theme of this year’s conference in Hong Kong, which focused on connecting the West with the East, the UN special rapporteur on Privacy, the Digital Asia Hub and the EDPS jointly hosted a side event at the conference, focused on exploring what privacy means in different countries and cultures. Aimed at data protection and privacy authorities and regulators, the event provided an opportunity for an open and interactive exchange of ideas, which proved both thought provoking and revealing. The 2018 International Conference will look to take this debate further.

The EDPS and the CPDP look forward to welcoming a wide spectrum of groups and individuals to the International Conference in 2018 to explore whether and how ethics can be asserted in our digital reality. More information on Digital Ethics and the 2018 International Conference, watch the conference video.

40th International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners

In March this year, my respected colleague Ventislav Karadjov, Chairman of the Commission for Personal Data Protection of the Republic of Bulgaria (CPDP) and I announced that we will jointly be hosting the 40th annual International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners in October 2018.

The honour and responsibility to deliver this well-established, high-level meeting in 2018 - the first time in the conference’s almost 40 year history that an EU institution has been selected to host it - is a priority for both of our institutions. Indeed, our preparations are underway so that we can deliver a world-class conference.

All regions of the world and all areas of our societies are impacted by digitisation from leisure to learning, from healthcare to governance, from finance to farming.

In light of the global nature of this phenomenon, we will be Debating Ethics: Dignity and Respect in Data Driven Life to explore broadly how data and those controlling that data are influencing our values.

Data protection and privacy authorities are first-hand witnesses of this societal change. With the 2018 conference, we intend to examine the ethical principles that can help sustain digital fairness: What is respect in the digital age? Is our autonomy eroded online? How can we preserve equality and human dignity in this millennium?

We want to raise as much awareness about this important forum and the discussions that will take place there in 2018 as we can; we want to highlight how technology has implications for our fundamental rights - particularly for our privacy and the protection of our personal data.

With this in mind, the EDPS and the CPDP are launching a competition to design a logo for the 2018 International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners. While the conference is an important event for policy makers, civil society groups, academics, and industry, we also want to reach out to other groups who do not traditionally join in such discussions.

We believe this contest can help to generate interest among an important group of technology users. We’d appreciate it if you would spread the word.

More information on the design competition

English - French - German - Italian - Polish - Spanish

On 18 May 2017, the EDPS is hosting a workshop on Data Driven Life (digital ethics) in Brussels.

With the support of the Ethics Advisory Group, the workshop will explore the positive and negative consequences of data-driven changes on society and on individuals to pursue their own life choices.

Data Driven Life will be about people rather than technology - citizens, users, consumers and communities - with a view to understanding how the use of data is propelling changes in society. With discussions ranging from health and scientific research, banking and insurance, humanitarian intelligence, citizenship to smart cities, the workshop targets a specific audience of academics and practitioners from the scientific and research fields.

This is the second workshop in the series organised by the EDPS advancing the global debate on the ethical dimension of the digital revolution. With the establishment of the Ethics Advisory Group and a well-received first workshop on the relationship between data protection and digital ethics, the debate was launched in 2016.

In October 2018, the EDPS and the Commission for Personal Data Protection of the Republic of Bulgaria will jointly host the 2018 International conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners (ICDPPC). With digital ethics as the core theme of the conference, the conference will also see the culmination of the work of the Ethics Advisory Group.

We look forward to welcoming experts from all disciplines to the Data Driven Life workshop. Priority will be given to participants from the research community, both hard and soft sciences.