19.05.2026 - 22.05.2026
Thank you for being part of CPDP 2026
CPDP 2026 is a wrap.
With 81 panels, 47 workshops, and a programme stretching across four days, the conference brought together researchers, policymakers, practitioners, and industry around the competing visions shaping our digital futures. Culture Club and Avatar FM extended that conversation beyond the main stage: the one approaching the conference themes through artistic and creative lenses, the other opening the floor to audiences who couldn't be at the conference or had perspectives worth hearing.
This page brings together everything we have to share from the week: You'll find panel and Culture Club video recordings (where available), daily photo galleries, audio from Avatar FM, and a selection of session reflections written by our rapporteurs, and links to download the full programme or order the CPDP conference book.
Thank you to everyone who made it what it is, the panel organisers, the sponsors and partners, the speakers and artists, the participants and volunteers, and the community that makes CPDP a truly unique space for knowledge creation and sharing. See you next year!
Opening Night & Pre-Events
On Tuesday 19 May, CPDP 2026 opened in collaboration with the Brussels Privacy Hub. Philippe Latombe (MP, France) and Sophie Stalla-Bourdillon (Co-Director of the Brussels Privacy Hub) joined at the opening night for a fireside chat on issues shaping the future of privacy and data protection. Artist Simon Denny (HFBK Hamburg), whose work graces the covers of this year's conference materials, joined Alicia Asín Pérez (CEO, Libelium) for a conversation on founder culture, the ideology of disruption, and governing data and AI. The evening closed with a cocktail reception.
Before the opening night, two pre-events opened the week.
The Digital Rights Lounge, powered by Privacy Camp, brought the Privacy Camp community together to discuss LGBTIQ+ rights in the digital age. A workshop organised together by Eindhoven University of Technology, CryptoExperts, and Privacy Salon dived into the post-quantum cryptography transition and what it means for privacy when today's encrypted data becomes readable tomorrow.
Day 1
Day 1 featured two dedicated tracks among many other panels in a packed programme. The returning DPO Track was joined by the Digital Youth Futures Track this year. The CPDP Culture Club opened with discussions inspired by the SENTIMENT project on human-AI bonds, followed by a Book Club session on feminism in the age of Big Tech. The CPDP Book Club examined surveillance and censorship as tools of repression, and the day closed with a screening of Molly vs. Machines. And Avatar FM set off for three days of broadcasting in its cozy hideaway in the venue.
Day 2
The Digital Youth Futures Track continued, and was joined by a track dedicated to IT Security Track. The Culture Club continued with discussions on the darker sides of academia, privacy rights, and EU data retention laws. Inspired by a short film by Gala Hernández López, participants reflected on the societal impact of neurotechnology.
Day 3
While many interesting panels took place on the main stages, several workshops explored re-identification risks in health data, geopolitical tensions around DSA implementation and creative approaches to the EU AI Act through poetry. Themes such as individual agency in data exchange, the transformation of employment through digital technologies and research practices under GPDR had their place in the programme.
Also the Culture Club continued, with screenings, book launches and discussions exploring data-driven systems in maternity healthcare, the artistic dimensions of OSINT, the evolving landscape of digital governance, and how mobile apps have reshaped our lives. Avatar.fm dove into a range of insightful conversations: examined NGOs in EU-funded innovation ecosystems, while discussions on feminist futures explored the intersection of power and data. In between DJ sessions, there was time to explore the possibilities of deigning small AI systems to foster community value, and to investigate how digital systems can manipulate ordinary behaviour under authoritarian regimes.
CPDP Book: Call for Chapters
Published since 2009, the Computers, Privacy and Data Protection series brings together academics, lawyers, practitioners, policy-makers, industry, and civil society in the spirit that defines CPDP itself. We are now inviting contributions to Volume 19: Data Protection, Privacy and Artificial Intelligence: Competing Visions, Shared Futures.
This volume grows out of CPDP 2026 and its central question: who gets to define the digital future, and on whose terms? Submissions should engage broadly with the themes explored during this year's conference. The volume will be ready before CPDP 2027.
CPDP 2026 Programme
