Home » IAPP Intensive – London, UK – March 2023

The IAPP – International Association of Privacy Professionals Data Protection Intensive: UK 2023 kicked off this Wednesday with John Edwards (Information Commissioner’s Office’s Commissioner)’s engaging speech followed by a panel with Lord Clement Jones (Liberal Democrat House of Lords Spokesperson for Digital) and Bojana Bellamy (President of Centre for Information Policy Leadership (CIPL)). Here are some of the key takeaways:

– The ICO is moving resources to what they think has the greatest effect. They’ve engaged and worked closely with organisations from all sectors, including new groups that they hadn’t spoken with before to ensure everyone fully understands their rights and the ICO’s role and value.

– AI regulations are around the corner. We need cross-sector approaches and horizontally-layered regulations. We will also need some kind of AI adequacy: something that has a risk-based approach, more holistic, more global.

– Breaking News: the UK Data Protection Reform is being discussed today in Parliament, which means the first draft could well be revealed this Thursday at the conference! The bill doesn’t just aim to clarify and simplify. It will most likely rely on organisations using their own judgment on how to handle their privacy. The regulators will need to incentivise organisations to step up and be accountable for their digital responsibility. Will Europe look at what the UK is doing? Stay tuned.

It’s already the end of the two-days IAPP – International Association of Privacy Professionals Data Protection Intensive: UK in London. We attended so many insightful keynotes over the two days and had lively coffee breaks with passionate #Privacy Professionals. The UK Data ProtectionReform is THE big buzz, and all eyes are also on the new and future (UK?) AI regulations.

The closing session included an interesting debate between Elizabeth Denham CBE (former ICO Commissioner and International privacy lawyer at Baker McKenzie) and Max Schrems (noyb.eu’s founder). They both agree that we need much more transparency on the procedural level. They even suggested the idea of a globalised democratic approach to Data Transfers, rather than relying on AdequacyDecisions and citizenship-based regulations. How to get there politically? It will be the role of Big Tech to put pressure on governments.

The OECD – OCDE work may be the brightest light to lead us down this road. The UK will have a role to play, it’s taken a hit on its reputation but it’s signalling some creativity for others to follow.

Elizabeth Denham CBE concluded by saying that the future of data transfers can be bright – but in 3 years time maybe. For Max Schrems? More like 10-20 years.