Over the past decade, digital-first societies have enabled citizen engagement, offered consumers greater choice, and facilitated a major leap in how we efficiently go about our daily lives. But with greater online connectivity comes a wider threat landscape for traditionally offline risks to move online, and vice versa.

Data protection law has been around for all of that change, but in recent years the rulebook on how the online world is governed has expanded greatly. Data protection has been joined by new laws on online safety, minor protections, AI, and a modernisation of cybersecurity laws to address new concerns and threats. In particular, we have seen sustained focus by policymakers in Europe on risks to youth wellbeing, and on the proliferation of online-enabled fraud. 

Efforts at regulatory coordination across the digital rulebook are underway, but the legal frameworks remain distinct and create their own specific obligations on organisations under their scope. This creates the potential for gaps in how threats and risks in one domain are understood in another. This can mean that governance and design choices made for online safety purposes may need to be demonstrated and evidenced as necessary and effective to a data protection regulator, if personal data is engaged. And it can mean that these issues rise up the political agenda where alignment is not universal, such as the current situation regarding CSAM detection in the EU. 

Organisations under scope of multiple digital laws in Europe face a challenge of having to make distinct necessity cases under distinct regulatory regimes. This session seeks to explore where some of those intersectional issues between safety and data protection arise, and how multistakeholder dialogue can contribute to a sustainable way forward. 

Aim of session: 

• To identify intersection points between privacy, safety and online security, and what interests are at play across them
• To discuss how organisations are approaching such interests in a holistic manner, where possible
• To propose areas where interests may be unaligned, and which would benefit from immediate multistakeholder discussion