Ever more systems of artificial intelligence – with apparent inescapability – are being established in ever more parts of our lives, cultures, and societies. They bring about justified concerns as well as governance efforts. In the EU, the upcoming AI Act stands out in this regard, aiming to introduce a common framework to govern artificial intelligence. As a first step, the increasing use of AI raises governance questions: for example, who should govern AI design and applications, or what may be governed by AI?
CPDP2024 puts accelerating complexity of AI at the centre stage, with the underlying question: Is AI governable?
The conference gathers a wealth of expertise in the fields of data protection and privacy, as well as politics and technology. Can experiences and existing work in the fields of data protection and privacy help us to understand and facilitate the governance of AI? To avoid making similar mistakes, how can we learn from known challenges and continuing struggles in implementing the GDPR? How can co-operation between different supervisory or regulatory authorities and different technological, research and civic domains be established for the governance of AI in all its diverse facets? How does the meaning, shape and practice of governance change when it faces Artificial Intelligence/Complexity? Who is excluded or sidelined by the complexity of Artificial Intelligence and its governance, or lack thereof?
During the conference, we approach these questions critically from different perspectives and deliberate on what the future may bring for cohabitation with incredible intelligences in our digital societies. Such reflections require multi-disciplinary conversations on societal, legal, ethical, and technical dynamics and norms that underpin the development of new socio-technical systems and the rules that govern their use.
History
Computers, Privacy & Data Protection (CPDP) is a non-profit platform originally founded in 2007 by research groups from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, the Université de Namur and Tilburg University.
The platform was joined in the following years by the Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique and the Fraunhofer Institut für System und Innovationsforschung and has now grown into a platform carried by 20 academic centers of excellence from the EU, the US and beyond. As a world-leading multidisciplinary conference CPDP offers the cutting edge in legal, regulatory, academic and technological development in privacy and data protection.
Within an atmosphere of independence and mutual respect, CPDP gathers academics, lawyers, practitioners, policy-makers, industry and civil society from all over the world in Brussels, offering them an arena to exchange ideas and discuss the latest emerging issues and trends. This unique multidisciplinary formula has served to make CPDP one of the leading data protection and privacy conferences in Europe and around the world.
CPDP 2023
In an increasingly digitised world, an ever-expanding constellation of data protection norms and values continues to materialise. The digital and regulatory agendas, both locally and globally, have profound impacts on the ways in which individuals and societies experience technology.
A reflection on the ideas that drive our digital world requires a reckoning with some of the big questions facing us today: how do we design a truly inclusive digital society? What is the future of technology and regulation, and how is this future decided?
Emerging global standards for privacy, data protection, AI and beyond, raise myriad questions on the rule of law in the digital world, processes of international norm creation, self-regulation and standardisation, and the design of governance and accountability frameworks. As data flows know no borders, and data protection laws have come of age, are current frameworks sufficient or are new ideas necessary?
Contribution
CPDP has a variety of contributing formats, which translate into partners, sponsors and supporters. Partners organise panels and pay a panel contribution to compensate for the fact that panellists do not have to pay registration fee.
There are two types of partners: (1) ‘Conference Partners’ is a format developed for academic centres of excellence that organise a panel at CPDP and are also involved in scientific activities such as reviewing the call for papers; (2) ‘Event Partners’ is a format for other public and private institutions and research projects that organise panels at CPDP; Sponsors contribute a certain sum of money in exchange for visibility. Some sponsors are also involved in organising panels others only have one or more speakers at the conference. There are three main levels of sponsorship: ‘Platinum, Premier and Event Sponsors’; Finally ‘Moral Supporters’ and ‘Media Supporters’ do not contribute financially or organise panels but provide moral support and/or press coverage to the conference.
CPDP 2024
Ever more systems of artificial intelligence – with apparent inescapability – are being established in ever more parts of our lives, cultures, and societies. They bring about justified concerns as well as governance efforts.
In the EU, the upcoming AI Act stands out in this regard, aiming to introduce a common framework to govern artificial intelligence. As a first step, the increasing use of AI raises governance questions: for example, who should govern AI design and applications, or what may be governed by AI?
CPDP2024 puts accelerating complexity of AI at the centre stage, with the underlying question: Is AI governable?
The conference gathers a wealth of expertise in the fields of data protection and privacy, as well as politics and technology. Can experiences and existing work in the fields of data protection and privacy help us to understand and facilitate the governance of AI? To avoid making similar mistakes, how can we learn from known challenges and continuing struggles in implementing the GDPR? How can co-operation between different supervisory or regulatory authorities and different technological, research and civic domains be established for the governance of AI in all its diverse facets? How does the meaning, shape and practice of governance change when it faces Artificial Intelligence/Complexity? Who is excluded or sidelined by the complexity of Artificial Intelligence and its governance, or lack thereof?
Past Editions
CPDP 2023
In an increasingly digitised world, an ever-expanding constellation of data protection norms and values continues to materialise. The digital and regulatory agendas, both locally and globally, have profound impacts on the ways in which individuals and societies experience technology.
A reflection on the ideas that drive our digital world requires a reckoning with some of the big questions facing us today: how do we design a truly inclusive digital society? What is the future of technology and regulation, and how is this future decided?
Emerging global standards for privacy, data protection, AI and beyond, raise myriad questions on the rule of law in the digital world, processes of international norm creation, self-regulation and standardisation, and the design of governance and accountability frameworks. As data flows know no borders, and data protection laws have come of age, are current frameworks sufficient or are new ideas necessary?
Crucially, reflecting on the ideas that drive our digital world also requires profound conversations on the societal, legal, ethical and technical norms that underpin the development of new technologies and the rules that govern their use.
CPDP 2022
The overarching theme of the 2022 edition is ‘Data Protection & Privacy in Transitional Times’. CPDP thus takes as its focus the major shifts in technology adoption driven by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the resulting increased reliance on digital technologies and infrastructures.
This situation has in turn escalated calls for ‘digital sovereignty’ in Europe and beyond, where we see a reassertion of nations, sovereignty, and borders in myriad ways. Among the most evident realities of the pandemic was sorting populations back into their nations of passport. This has also enabled new means of establishing and justifying borders with long term closures and the introduction of new digital identity infrastructure such as vaccine passports.
Besides bidding to form future models for data governance and the data economy, the EU has also laid out plans to pioneer legislation governing the use of Artificial Intelligence. In this pivotal moment, engaging in transatlantic, multidisciplinary dialogue has become of central significance. Amidst all these developments, what does the future hold for data protection? What is law’s task in the wake of a pandemic which has exacerbated inequalities and unjust data practices? While “data as asset” approach is gaining a stronghold in political discourse, what are the future imaginaries for data protection law? Looking towards the future, how might we design vital technological infrastructures to minimise data protection and fundamental rights risks?