2021 has already proven to be a big year for debates about privacy, as the roll-out of controversial technologies such as facial recognition systems accelerates and new uses of existing solutions - ostensibly to combat the COVID-19 pandemic - generate public outcry. On the regulatory side, much is happening as well. The European Commission has released a host of new legislative proposals, from its new approach to AI to wide-ranging platform regulations and competition instruments that strike at the very heart of privacy-invasive business models.

Many of those business models, however, are not properly regulated and collect questionable privacy-related data on the local level. They do so both in public spaces, as well as in “publicly accessible” spaces, which often operate under entirely different rules than the traditional town square or public streets. Cities often are not aware of their specific regulatory powers when it comes to preventing companies from invading citizens’ privacy by collecting sensitive data on a large scale.

The questions discussed during this workshop concerned the role cities can play in preserving their citizens’ privacy in the face of little regulated mass data collection by private actors.

This session is part of the “Privacy in Public Spaces” project, a recently launched research project by the City of Amsterdam and UK innovation foundation Nesta, which looks at the role cities and regions can play in protecting the privacy of their residents, especially when it comes to private sector data collection.

This workshop was organised in collaboration with Eurocities and the Cities Coalition for Digital Rights

Agenda

Please note times are GMT+1

09:00-09:15: Brief introduction to the project and Amsterdam’s work on privacy.

Anne-Maartje Douqué, City of Amsterdam, CIO Office
Katja Bego, Nesta

09:15-10:15: Mapping the challenges: What are the main barriers cities and local governments currently face when it comes to safeguarding the privacy of their residents?

10:15-10:45: Mechanisms and solutions: What mechanisms and policy levers do local decision-makers currently have in their toolbox, and how well do these work? What more should happen on the local, national and European level to help support cities and regions to better safeguard the privacy of residents?