With over 120 sessions and more than 500 speakers, CPDP offers a rich and diverse programme that can at times feel overwhelming. Dedicated Tracks help participants navigate this variety by providing curated pathways through key themes. Co-developed with domain experts, these tracks bring together panels, workshops, and discussions that deepen dialogue within and between specific professional communities.
Launched in 2025, the first Dedicated Tracks proved a success by creating new spaces for professional and academic exchange. The Computer Science Track, curated by Jaap-Henk Hoepman and Marit Hansen, explored topics such as strengthening vulnerability management, organised by Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte; modelling privacy threats in health data spaces, organised by the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology; and building trust in deception-detection technologies, organised by SnT/University of Luxembourg. The DPO Track, curated by Jolien Ghyselinck and Peter Berghmans, examined issues in 2025 ranging from law-enforcement data protection organised by EDEN/Europol to the cross-border challenges of DPO work supported by UBER and the economic benefits of DPO activities organised by CNIL.
2026: Expanding the Programme and New Additions In 2026, the programme is returning with more dedicated tracks. Each of them is designed with co-curators to foster a dialogue among specialists and to connect these fields to the wider CPDP community. This year, the Dedicated Tracks include a DPOs track, a Digital Youth Future track, a Future of Finance track and an IT Security track. Additional tracks may follow!
CPDP continues its fruitful collaboration with Data Protection Officers with the return of the DPO Track. The curators Peter Bergmans (DP Institute) and Jolien Ghyselinck (Belgian National Institute for Criminalistics and Criminology) create a learning and networking environment where DPOs and privacy professionals can exchange, reflect, and strengthen their professional community. The focus of the DPO Track is on digital sovereignty, ethical and institutional tensions, and enhancing visibility across complex supply chains. A central question will be how Data Protection Officers can transform regulatory challenges into opportunities for governance, trust, and transparency.
CPDP welcomes the Digital Youth Futures track for the first time in 2026, co-curated by Sophie Stalla-Bourdillon and Bárbara da Rosa Lazarotto (Brussels Privacy Hub). The regulation of minors’ online experience and protection remains deeply complex and contested. It spans a broad spectrum of issues, from age-appropriate design and age assurance mechanisms to highly politicised and potentially intrusive interventions. This track will dive deeper into these debates and contested topics, to foster cross-disciplinary dialogue on the online protection of minors, their rights, and well-being.
In 2026, the financial sector is not exempt from the competing visions on how data is used. Co-curated by Andres Chomczyk Penedo, the ‘Future of Finance’ track intends to examine how these visions of data governance across the globe are also reshaping the financial services industry in critical areas. This track will not only look back at the legacy of data protection and privacy in incumbent banking; it will also host a critical debate on its future, whether it pertains to central bank digital currencies, cryptocurrencies, or open finance.
Dedicated Tracks expands with the addition of the IT Security track, co-curated by Franziska Boehm, Stephanie Maltzan and Thilo Gottschalk from FIZ Karlsruhe – Leibniz Institute for Information Infrastructure. This track situates technical safeguards, such as encryption, zero-trust architectures and secure software supply chain practices, within a broader governance and regulatory context. By mapping the technical, regulatory and geopolitical dimensions the track encourages security engineers, regulators, researchers, policymakers and compliance officers to approach IT security, data protection and innovation as complementary instruments that are central to safeguarding fundamental rights and strengthening Europe’s long-term digital sovereignty.
Successing last year's Computer Science track, the Engineering Privacy and Data Protection track is curated by Jaap-Henk Hoepman from Radboud University and Marit Hansen from Unabhängiges Landeszentrum für Datenschutz (ULD). This track will explore "privacy & data protection engineering" and privacy by design from a broad perspective, including technical, legal, and organisational aspects. Panels and workshops of this track shall cover recent developments in the field from these three perspectives, ideally combining at least two of them in a single panel or workshop. Possible topics could be the Digital Omnibus proposals and how these could affect data protection by design and by default, especially in the area of pseudonymisation and anonymisation, or how this would affect the concept of 'singling out'.
We invite research organisations (universities, research projects, think tanks and others), public sector bodies, and civil society to submit panel and workshop proposals that fit with these dedicated tracks. Please indicate in your submission that you would like your session to be considered as part of a specific Dedicated Track. Contact: info@cpdpconferences.org