Law in the Age of Hyperconnectivity

http://register.knowledge-nomads.com/Berlin2017/pages/Monday

Law in the Age of Hyperconnectivity

On Monday, 24 July, we have a full day on data protection, privacy, fake news, big data, antitrust and related themes, with Judge Christopher Vajda from the Court of Justice of the European Union, former German MP Vera Lengsfeld, Austrian privacy activist and lawyer Max Schrems, and speakers from Google, the BT Group, the Oxford Internet Institute, UNICEF and more.

Abstract of the agenda:

Law in the Age of Hyperconnectivity

Session 1: Chair – Brandon Smith, Investigative Journalist, The Capitol Forum, Washington DC

8:30 am Morning Keynote Speaker

Vera Lengsfeld, Author, Civil Rights Activist and Former Member of the German Federal Parliament, Berlin

REFLECTIONS ON STATE AND MASS SURVEILLANCE: THEN AND NOW

Vera Lengsfeld will share her experiences as a dissident under the East German communist regime, when she was under surveillance by the Stasi for a number of years, comparing this with surveillance in various forms that takes place today, with reflections on implications for democracy in our society.

9:00 am TOO MUCH DATA, TOO LITTLE REGULATION?

Dr Sandra Wachter, Data Ethics, Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, Algorithms, Privacy and Data Protection Expert, The Oxford Internet Institute, Oxford

The pervasiveness of giant online platforms such as Google, Facebook and others and our addiction to them means that vast amounts of personal data are being amassed like never before in history. We mostly use these platforms for free, but actually we pay in a different currency – with our personal data, and that data is then monetised. Sandra Wachter will explain the technologies used by these platforms, some of the implications of AI and algorithms which use “big data”, with observations as to how they are presently being and might in the future be regulated in line with ethical, antitrust, privacy and data protection principles.

9:30 am YOU AND ME AGAINST FACEBOOK

Max Schrems, Lawyer and Privacy Activist, Vienna

What privacy and data protection laws exist to protect individual users of Facebook in Europe? Is the law being respected? What can users do to enforce their rights and hold Facebook to account? Does the United States afford an adequate level of protection to the data of European Facebook users transferred across the Atlantic? Are the so-called standard contractual clauses which Facebook users have no choice but to accept, which allow Facebook to transfer data outside of Europe, valid? Since 2011, Max Schrems has devoted himself to precisely these issues, chalking up a series of impressive victories against Facebook and changing the privacy landscape.

10:00 am PREPARING FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE EU’s NEW DATA PROTECTION REGULATION

Lanah Kammourieh Donnelly, Public Policy Manager, Google, London
The EU’s new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will take effect in May 2018. It seeks to update and harmonise data protection across the EU and to strengthen data subject rights, for example by making it easier to transfer personal data between service providers. The GDPR is the first major revision of EU personal data protections in over two decades. As a result, for companies, and across all industries, understanding and preparing for these new rules requires significant work and advance planning. Lanah Kammourieh Donnelly will explain how Google is getting ready for the GDPR, focusing on transparency, privacy controls, and user trust.

Session 2: Chair – Erica Stein, Dechert LLP, Brussels

10:50 am CHILDREN’S RIGHTS IN A DIGITAL WORLD

Patrick Geary, Corporate Social Responsibility Specialist – Children’s Rights, UNICEF, Geneva

Today, children’s personal data is collected almost from birth, with wearable trackers being introduced in the bassinet and infant photographs adorning parents’ online profiles. Individual children are intimately known and understood by commercial forces long before they make their first purchase. Patrick Geary will talk about the nature of children’s right to privacy, threats to that right, and the role of the ICT sector in mitigating and ameliorating those threats, as well as legal and policy measures being advocated by UNICEF. He will also explain UNICEF’s most recent work on the tensions between children’s rights to protection from violence and their rights to freedom of expression, association, access to information and participation.

To be continued on website http://register.knowledge-nomads.com/Berlin2017/pages/Monday