Where better to discuss the important issue of regulatory cooperation and data protection than in Tirana, Albania? This was the location of the 41st International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners (ICDPPC) which took place on 21 – 24 October 2019.

The Conference started off with 1.5 days of a members-only meeting known as the ‘closed session’. 

The Closed Session began with a presentation on AI and ethics – building on the discussion at the 40^th Conference. The keynote speaker, Dr Ing Konstantinos Karachalios, Managing Director, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, (IEEE) addressed the session and asked whether there was a failure of the AI tech community to incentivise ethical AI in practice, and what could be done about it. The session also had speakers from Accenture and European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS).

New strategic direction and name

This meeting was significant as the ICDPPC has a new name - Global Privacy Assembly - and has a new strategic direction until 2021. The strategic direction endeavours to achieve the following strategic priorities:

• Advancing global privacy in a digital age, by working towards a global regulatory environment with clear and consistently high standards of data protection
• Maximising the conference’s voice and influence, by enhancing the conference’s role in wider digital policy and by strengthening relationships with other international bodies and networks;
• Capacity building to support members sharing expertise year-round.

Several other policy documents were discussed which contribute to the future of the Conference. The Conference continues to strive to satisfy the membership and establish a funded secretariat. Our office sees merit in a funded secretariat, especially after being the chair and secretariat of the Conference from 2014-17, and hopes the membership agree on a model that can be implemented soon.

The good thing about this Conference is it gives other privacy networks an opportunity to be heard, engage and report back on their work conducted through the year. Being the largest gathering of data protection and privacy commissioners, it is useful to ensure global cooperation with other networks.

Day 1 ended on a high note for our Office - I had the great honour to see the Commissioner receive an ICDPPC award for the work done by my colleagues on the MSD inquiry. Getting recognised internationally for the work we do motivates us to do more with the limited resources we have.

Resolutions

The highlight of the second day of the closed session were the resolutions that were discussed and adopted: 

• Resolution on the promotion of new and long-term practical instruments and continued legal efforts for effective cooperation in cross-border enforcement;
• Resolution on privacy as a fundamental human right and precondition for exercising other fundamental rights;
• Resolution to support and facilitate regulatory co-operation between data protection authorities and consumer protection and competition authorities to achieve clear and consistently high standards of data protection in the Digital Economy;
• Resolution to address the role of human error in personal data breaches;
• Resolution on social media and violent extremist content online.

The resolution we presented was on social media and violent extremist content online. This resolution builds on the work of the Christchurch Call.

The day also included updates from Prof Joseph Cannataci, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Privacy, and Professor Colin Bennett, University of Victoria, who discussed his research on privacy and democratic engagement.

For me, personally attending the Conference was an amazing privilege and I enjoyed my action-packed week in Tirana. The Albanian Information and Data Protection Commissioner’s Office did everything they could in their capacity to ensure this Conference, the last as the ICDPPC, was a success. Kudos to them!

Image credit: Flag of Albania

International