Advertisement Intelligence by European Security Agencies

  • Panel
  • Orangerie
  • Thursday 22.05 — 08:45 - 10:00

Organising Institution

interface - tech analysis and policy ideas for Europe

International

interface is a European think tank specialising in information technology and public policy. Our goal is to ensure that political decision-makers and the public have the expertise and ideas necessary to create policies and make decisions that put the public interest first.
  • Business 2
  • Policy 4
Geolocation data and other sensitive information about individuals is for sale in epic quantities. Investigative reporting documents, for example, how frictionless one can obtain a near-live subscription to 3.6 billion geolocation records for less than 14.000 Euros through a Berlin-based platform. This trade interferes with the rights of millions and European security agencies are top clients for data brokers. Nascent regulatory efforts on sensitive commercially available data are driven primarily by valid national security concerns. For example, U.S. policymakers are advancing a framework to better protect bulk sensitive data of Americans from being sold to countries of concern. Are legislators also prepared to better protect individuals from unconstrained, unreasonable, arbitrary or disproportionate government use of purchased data? How can European democracies better address the enormous privacy challenges to which the GDPR has not been a cure.

Questions to be answered

  1. What kind of protections should legislators advance to better protect the rights of individuals from potential infringements tied to the use of commercially available data by democratic governments?
  2. What needs to be done to strengthen the mandate and the aptitude of independent and effective oversight?
  3. What could European data protection authorities do to close current loopholes in the enforcement of privacy rights?
  4. How can the EU, the Council of Europe and the OECD help advance norms and legal standards when it comes to ADINT?

Moderator

Thorsten Wetzling

interface - tech analysis and policy ideas for Europe - Germany

Dr. Thorsten Wetzling heads the research unit "Digital Rights, Surveillance and Democracy" of the think tank interface. His work focuses on the review of legal frameworks and independent oversight mechanisms for different modes of access and processing of data by security and intelligence agencies in Europe.

Speaker

Sharon Bradford Franklin

Independent - United States

Former Chair of the U.S. Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (until January 2025).

Speaker

Corbinian Ruckerbauer

interface - tech analysis and policy ideas for Europe - Germany

Senior Policy Researcher focussing on intelligence oversight, public-private co-production of security and its impact on fundamental rights and democracy.

Speaker

Jan Ellermann

Europol - Europe

Jan Ellermann works as Senior Specialist in Europol's Data Protection Function and provides operational data protection related guidance across the organisation. He holds a doctoral degree in law and has published various articles on data protection and information security related topics. Jan is a certified data protection auditor and has obtained a Master of Science degree in Forensic Computing and Cybercrime Investigation at the University College in Dublin (UCD).