Oh to be a privacy regulator,
these days.
Who else gets to contemplate
horribly complicated issues, treading a fine line between the needs of
citizens, global organisations, public authorities and SMEs?
And who else gets to contemplate
it in Mauritius?
From 13 to 16 October, some of
the worlds finest data protection minds will be working out how to keep the
sand out of their laptops as they contemplate more effective ways to regulate
the digital universe.
The theme of the 36th international
data protection and privacy commissioners conference is “A world order for data protection – our
dream coming true?”
One look at the host’s website
certainly indicates that someone’s dream will be coming true. If anyone ever
wanted to know about data protection and snorkeling, then this the
place to go. Oh, to be paid to attend a privacy conference at a stunning
resort hotel, located on pristine white sands overlooking the bay of Balaclava. I want that job.
I should not snide though. I’m likely
to be in London (or Dublin) helping data controllers appreciate how best to
avoid the critical gaze of their regulator. Not in the tropics.
To be fair, the delegates in Mauritius will be
faced with a pretty packed programme. And I do hope that a good number remain
for the final speaker, Marie Georges. A good number of them will probably never
have heard of her. Even her job title, “Independent Expert and Member of
the Fundamental Rights European Expert Group,” doesn’t give that much
away.
But I know better.
I still I last saw her a few months ago in Brussels, and first
met her several decades ago. Marie was
(effectively) the person who drafted much of what we have come to know and love
as the 1995 Data Protection Directive. Yes, it is her work that has become so
out-of-date that it now needs to be replaced by another legal instrument. So it
is probably fitting that the regulators should thank her politely before consigning
her work to the statutory waste paper bin.
I have vivid memories of happy times, punting with her on the
river Cam, during a privacy conference in Cambridge. Well, to be fair, some Cambridge graduate was doing all the punting.
We were both just enjoying a glass or two of bubbly – as well as the view. I didn’t
agree on her views on privacy back then, particularly on her insistence that it
was right that policymakers be able to argue and negotiate their positions on
the then (draft) Data Protection Directive in private, rather than in public.
I’m not sure whether she has changed her views about many data
controllers. Particularly about those who shouted at her during the conference when they
didn’t agree with her views on the need for tighter rules on direct marketing.
Yes, data protection was a hotly contested topic back then, too.
To be fair, I don’t expect that the delegates will be shouting
at each other this year. Many already know what they think about each other,
and that’s enough.
I predict that we won’t be seeing too many public displays of
disaffection.
Perhaps an argument about how to moderate public expectations of
privacy in an internet age. Google will probably get another going over.
And perhaps a murmur of gratitude from the consultants present
to thank the regulators for making data protection laws so complicated that
data controllers will absolutely have to rely on their advices even more over
the coming years.
Then, everyone can close their laptops and, if they have time
before their long flight home, appreciate whatever other delights Mauritius has
to offer the tired traveller.
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