Data protection law as a shield, not a weapon: empowering historically marginalized communities in the EU in times of de-regulation

  • Panel
  • Café
  • Friday 22.05 — 16:00 - 17:15

Organising Institution

ALTI

Netherlands

  • Academic 3
  • Business 1
  • Policy 2
Rules on data protection, access and sharing across the EU are being revised to support innovation and new digital services. Changing these rules interacts with deeply rooted asymmetries in power. This panel examines how the potential changes to the EU’s data protection and digital regulatory framework can affect historically marginalized communities, including women, queer people, migrants, people of color and low-income groups. A focal point is to think about the structural inequalities that shape the exposure of these groups to harm, when a deregulatory agenda or an effort to “simplify” the law overlooks protections for certain groups. When rules expand access to data vulnerable categories are exposed to greater risks. We will also explore what happens when systems built under EU law are used in times of democratic regress, turned into a tool against specific groups, threatening democracy itself.

Questions to be answered

  1. What consequences do existing and proposed changes to EU data protection and related legislation have for different groups in society?
  2. How are historically marginalized communities affected by the changes in the law, like women, queer people, migrants, people of color and low-income groups?
  3. What are possible alternatives, for data infrastructures that account for pluralism, minority rights, and don't reinforce marginalization?
  4. How should regulators incorporate intersectional solutions and the perspectives of marginalized communities into the design, supervision and evaluation of data access and sharing practices?

Moderator

Vardâyani Djwalapersad

ALTI - VU Amsterdam - Netherlands

Vardâyani Djwalapersad is a member of the Amsterdam Law & Technology Institute (ALTI). She works as a lecturer and researcher in the Law & Technology department at VU Amsterdam. In her teaching and research, Vardâyani's focus mostly lies on the risks of digital technologies, implementing diversity and reflecting on AI and data legislation. She is passionate about discussing the impact of technological innovation on the legal system and society, particularly when it comes to the protection of minorities. Vardâyani teaches about themes such as algorithmic discrimination, risk profiling, dangers for women in the digital sphere, predictive policing, and the downsides of language models. She is a board member of the Dutch Association for AI and Robot Law (NVAIR). She has written about ethnic profiling in the Netherlands, algorithmic discrimination at municipal level and mass incarceration in the US.

Speaker

Kave Noori

European Disability Forum - Belgium

Kave Noori has been the Artificial Intelligence Policy Officer at the European Disability Forum (EDF) since January 2023. He advocates for the EU AI Act to protect persons with disabilities and helps EDF member organisations to build their capacity in the areas of AI and disability rights. Kave also writes weekly articles for the Swedish Data Protection Forum and is a member of Accessible Standards Canada's technical committee on Accessible and Equitable Artificial Intelligence Systems.

Speaker

Bahija Aarrass

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam - Netherlands

Bahija Aarrass is an Associate professor of Constitutional and Administrative law at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Her research interests are European human rights law, migration and asylum law and European public law. She coordinates and teaches several courses on constitutional law and human rights law (amongst others: Human rights and Diversity). Her academic expertise lies in the intersection of human rights and migration law, and the impact of digitalization on fundamental rights. She is a member of the Meijers Committee (State Advisory Committee on International migration, European and criminal law) and a member of the editorial board of EHRC Updates, NTM (Netherlands Journal for Human Rights) and AMR (Netherlands journal for Asylum & Migration law). She is also a member of the Steering Committee of the Netherlands Network for Human Rights Research.

Speaker

Ellen Lefley

JUSTICE - International

Ellen Lefley is JUSTICE's Senior Lawyer, before which she practised as a barrister in England. JUSTICE is a human rights and law reform charity, which has been working to improve the UK justice system since 1957. It is the UK section of the International Commission of Jurists. Ellen leads JUSTICE’s current workstream on artificial intelligence, human rights and the law, which in 2025 published a rights and rule of law-based framework for AI in the justice system, co-authored with Sophia Adams Bhatti, and a report on AI in policing: international lessons and domestic solutions. Recent work has included advising Government ministers on the regulation of biometric technology, and advising Parliament on the human rights impacts of increasing Government data access powers to social security recipients' bank accounts. She also has written on the right to a human judge in the civil law context, co-authored with Professor Mimi Zou, in Cambridge University Press’s Handbook on Generative AI and the Law (2025).