Brussels Privacy Symposium 2026: GDPR Resilience and Emerging Tech

A good reminder from @Eric Leijonram, Director General of IMY, at @Nordic Privacy Arena this morning: At its core, the GDPR provides a framework for balancing interests. ✨ That means considering necessity and proportionality, putting appropriate safeguards in place (in time!) , and making conscious choices about risk. A practical approach to GDPR is not about lowering the level of protection. It is about using the regulation for what it was designed to do: providing a structured way to navigate situations where different interests inevitably collide. That is also where privacy and data protection work adds the most value. Not as a blocker or a box-ticking exercise for documentation’s sake, but as a tool for making better and more defensible decisions.

🔐 How can privacy programmes keep pace with changing risks and regulatory expectations without becoming overly complex? At the 10th Annual Privacy & Data Protection Summit on 22–23 October 2026 in Berlin, Christopher Beveridge, FCA, MAAT, CIPP-E from BDO will explore how organisations can build a more adaptable approach to privacy. He will examine practical principles including data minimisation, transparency, user control, risk-based security, and accountability, alongside ways to continuously assess and adjust privacy practices while remaining aligned with GDPR. 📌 A practical session for privacy, data protection, legal, and compliance professionals looking to strengthen how privacy is managed across their organisations. 🎟️ Join industry leaders in Berlin: https://lnkd.in/diNRGvfW #DataPrivacy2026 #DataProtection #PrivacyByDesign #PrivacyInnovation #LuxatiaSummits

🗣️ Scope Europe discusses cross-border enforcement of GDPR Codes of Conduct and certifications at Bitkom Privacy Conference 🤝 At the Bitkom Privacy Conference, SCOPE Europe joined a panel discussion on how GDPR Codes of Conduct and certifications can support organizations operating across borders. Represented by Managing Director Gabriela Mercuri, SCOPE Europe contributed its practical experience as the accredited Monitoring Body of both the EU Cloud Code of Conduct and the Dutch Data Pro Code to a discussion on what makes these frameworks effective in practice. 🔒 Together with Alain Herrmann of Luxembourg's National Commission for Data Protection (CNPD) and Prof. Dr. Sebastian Lins of the University of Kassel, the panel explored how practical requirements, proportionate oversight and collaboration can help build trust in data protection frameworks. Thank you to Bitkom, the moderator Elena Kouremenou, LL.M., and our fellow panelists for the meaningful exchange. 👉 The full discussion is now available to watch here: https://lnkd.in/emAyp_p7 #GDPR #CodesofConduct #DataProtection #pco26

With the DPDPA compliance timeline approaching, your website is becoming one of the most critical areas to review for privacy compliance. A few key questions every organisation should be asking: • Are we obtaining appropriate consent from the Data Principal before collecting personal data? • What cookies are being placed on our website? • Are marketing cookies or trackers being deployed with appropriate consent? • Is our Privacy Notice clearly available and appropriately aligned with our data practices? Run a privacy check on your website with Dutro’s BUA (Baseline Universal Advisor). Use the link below to run a scan and identify potential privacy compliance gaps: 🔗 https://bua.dutro.ai #DPDPA #DataPrivacy #PrivacyCompliance #DataProtection #Cookies #ConsentManagement #PrivacyNotice #DigitalPrivacy #Compliance

𝗡𝗘𝗪 𝗥𝗘𝗣𝗢𝗥𝗧 | BEUC asked Assembly Research to conduct an economic analysis of the impact on European consumers and businesses of a failure to protect existing EU privacy and data protection regulation. The results from the study highlight the often-overlooked economic benefits of privacy: strongly enforcing the GDPR and protecting consumers’ rights is an economic asset for companies, not a burden. Read the full report: https://lnkd.in/e__npzn5 For a truly competitive European economy that properly leverages privacy and data protection as a competitive advantage, BEUC recommends the following:  1️⃣ Keep personal data processing based on users’ consent - not legitimate interest.  2️⃣ Strengthen consumers’ rights to access, correct, transfer, and erase their personal data. 3️⃣ Improve enforcement of companies’ obligations to properly secure and monitor personal data. 

💶 Did you know that European businesses cost €1.9bn per year to consumers by overlooking privacy and data protection measures? These costs stem from a lack of protection against data breaches or empowering consumers with basic rights of access, erasure and data portability. And the financial impact of ignoring privacy and data protection measures goes beyond consumers... Organisations lose around €25bn per year when services are taken offline because of a data breach and around 60% of small businesses close their doors within six months of a data breach. As policymakers negotiate on the Digital Omnibus proposal, Europe should think twice before trading away these protections. This data comes from a new report from Assembly Research who analysed the economic costs of weakening the EUs GDPR.

Following the European Commission’s proposed Digital Omnibus package, BEUC commissioned Assembly to assess the economic impact on European consumers and businesses of failing to protect existing EU privacy and data protection regulations. Assembly Research’s findings underscore the frequently overlooked economic value of privacy: robust GDPR enforcement and strong consumer protections are assets for companies—not burdens. To build a truly competitive European economy that harnesses privacy and data protection as a competitive advantage, BEUC recommends the following: 1. Continue basing personal data processing on users’ consent rather than legitimate interest; 2. Strengthen consumers’ rights to access, correct, transfer, and erase their personal data. 3. Enhance enforcement of companies’ obligations to properly secure and monitor personal data. Here's the report: https://lnkd.in/eHvSvQtB Below's the annex: Credits: Dr. Gabriela Zanfir-Fortuna and Cláudio Teixeira

🔐 How can we enable healthcare data sharing without compromising privacy? As healthcare becomes increasingly digital, sharing health information between institutions can support better coordination, analysis, planning, and research. But health data is also among the most sensitive forms of personal information. Our latest CONSENTIS Project blog from @Teodor Matei, explores how Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs) can help address this challenge — by protecting data before it leaves the controlled environment of the data provider. The CONSENTIS framework brings together three key privacy-enhancing approaches: 🔹 Anonymisation & generalisation — using techniques such as k-anonymity, l-diversity and t-closeness to reduce re-identification risks in multi-record datasets. 🔹 Differential privacy — adding carefully calibrated randomness to analytical outputs to limit what can be inferred about individuals, with privacy protection adapted through an appropriate privacy budget. 🔹 Encryption — protecting individual health records during transmission so that only the authorised recipient can access the original data. Together, these technologies support a layered privacy-by-design approach: consent and authorisation determine whether data can be disclosed, while PETs help determine how that authorised data can be safely prepared and protected. The goal is not to prevent legitimate data sharing. It is to make healthcare data sharing more privacy-aware by design — releasing only what is authorised and necessary, while applying appropriate technical safeguards before information crosses institutional boundaries. 📖 Read the full blog: https://lnkd.in/eADyiCYH 📚 Read the publication on Zenodo: https://lnkd.in/en6BkrMp #Healthcare #HealthData #DataPrivacy #PrivacyEnhancingTechnologies #PETs #Cybersecurity #GDPR #DigitalHealth #DataSharing #PrivacyByDesign

Connected mobility depends on data. But it starts with trust. The Dutch nationwide Networked V2X deployment demonstrates that privacy doesn't have to slow down innovation. With Privacy-by-Design, GDPR compliance and secure data sharing, it's possible to scale connected mobility while protecting road users. This whitepaper shares the best practices behind one of the world's largest operational deployments. 👇 Download the whitepaper in the first comment. #wemaketraffictalk #connectedmobility #digitalinfrastructure

The EU-US Data Privacy Framework can survive after Slaughter. Bret Cohen and Julian Flamant of Hogan Lovells Cadwalader argue that a targeted correction would be more apt than annulment of the transfer mechanism International Report October 2026 #dataprotection #privacylaws https://lnkd.in/epXUsbv9