Conference: Beyond Data Protection – Regulating information and protection against risks of the digital society

Legal protection against risks of the digital society is often framed in terms of regulating (certain types of) information or data. The EU's General Data Protection Regulation in particular applies to the processing of “personal data” and has been seen as a “Jack of all trades”, a primary available means of legal protection against a variety of harms caused or exacerbated by digital technology. This focus on information and data has been subject to growing critique, among others, for lack of theoretical understanding of what information (and data) is and how it relates to reality. The conference addresses the challenges of (personal) data-centered legal protection against information-induced harms, and considers alternatives beyond data (protection), from the perspectives of law and regulatory theory, critical data and infrastructure studies, economics, information studies, and other disciplines.  

We seek proposals for papers and panels that will explore these challenges. The Beyond Data Protection Conference will include keynote talks, roundtable discussions, and panels where scholars can present and discuss their research. We particularly welcome submissions that address one of the following themes, but other proposals fitting the general objectives of the conference are welcome as well.

Confirmed speakers

Dr Michael Veale is Associate Professor in digital rights and regulation at University College London's Faculty of Laws. His research focuses on how to understand and address challenges of power and justice that digital technologies and their users create and exacerbate, in areas such as privacy-enhancing technologies and machine learning. This work is regularly cited by legislators, regulators and governments, and Dr Veale has consulted for a range of policy organisations including the Royal Society and British Academy, the Law Society of England and Wales, the European Commission, the Commonwealth Secretariat. Dr Veale holds a PhD from UCL, a MSc from Maastricht University and a BSc from LSE. He tweets at @mikarv.

Prof. dr. Lokke Moerel is senior of counsel with Morrison & Foerster (in Brussels) and professor of Global ICT law at Tilburg University (The Netherlands), where she teaches global data protection and new technologies. Among the world’s best-known privacy & cyber advisers, Lokke is regularly called upon by some of the world’s most complex multinational organizations to confront their global privacy and ethical challenges when implementing new technologies and digital business models and to assist them with their global cyber security incident response and regulatory investigations.

Roundtable

The Conference will host a roundtable on “Data protection: how to keep it relevant in 2033.” This roundtable will gather experts from law practice, policy and academia to discuss how data protection can stay relevant in 2033. How can legal protection against information harms be made sustainable in view of rapid technological change[? The discussion will be informed by the core findings of the ERC INFO-LEG project.

Registration

Registration will open on June 20, and will close on September 10, 24:00 CET, or earlier when the maximum capacity of the conference venue is reached. Please register via this form

Organizers

The conference is organized under the auspices of the INFO-LEG project, funded by the European Research Council (ERC) through an ERC Starting Grant awarded to Nadya Purtova (grant no. 716971). Due to this project funding, there will be no registration fees for participants and attendees. 

More information

Call for papers and other information can be found at Beyond Data Protection Conference: Regulating Information and Protection against Risks of the Digital Society – INFO-LEG (infolegproject.net)