Privacy & Information Security Law Blog

On October 5, 2018, the Centre for Information Policy Leadership (“CIPL”) at Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP hosted a workshop on how to implement, demonstrate and incentivize accountability under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), in collaboration with AXA in Paris, France. In addition to the workshop, on October 4, 2018, CIPL hosted a Roundtable on the Role of the Data Protection Office (“DPO”) under the GDPR at Mastercard and a pre-workshop dinner at the Chanel School of Fashion, sponsored by Nymity.

Roundtable on the Role of the DPO Under the GDPR

On October 4, 2018, CIPL hosted a Roundtable on the Role of the DPO under the GDPR. The industry-only session consisted of an open discussion among CIPL members who have firsthand experience in carrying out the role and tasks of a DPO in diverse and complex multinational organizations. Following opening remarks by CIPL president Bojana Bellamy, participants discussed practical challenges, best practices and solutions to the effective exercise of the DPO’s functions. The Roundtable addressed issues such as the position of the DPO in the organization, independence and conflict of interests and rights, duties and liability of the DPO. View the full program and discussion topics as listed in the program agenda.

CIPL Pre-Workshop Dinner at Chanel School of Fashion

On the evening of October 4, 2018, CIPL hosted a pre-workshop dinner at the Chanel School of Fashion, sponsored by Nymity. The event brought together CIPL members and data protection authorities (“DPAs”) in advance of CIPL’s all day accountability workshop. During the dinner, remarks were given by Bojana Bellamy, as well as Anna Pouliou, Head of Privacy at Chanel and Terry McQuay, Nymity president and sponsor of the event.

CIPL Workshop on How to Implement, Demonstrate and Incentivize Accountability Under the GDPR

On October 5, 2018, CIPL hosted an all day workshop on How to Implement, Demonstrate and Incentivize Accountability Under the GDPR, in collaboration with AXA. CIPL’s two newest papers on the Central Role of Accountability in Data Protection formed the basis of the program, placing an emphasis on how accountability enables effective data protection and trust in the digital society, and on the need for DPAs to encourage and incentivize accountability. Over 100 CIPL members and invited guests attended the session, including over 10 data privacy regulators.

Following opening remarks by Emmanuel Touzeau, Group Communication and Brand Director – GDPR Sponsor at AXA and CIPL’s Bojana Bellamy, introductory scene setting keynotes by Peter Hustinx, Former European Data Protection Supervisor and Patrick Rowe, Deputy General Counsel at Accenture laid the foundation for the day’s discussions.

The first panel on “Accountability under the GDPR” featured a wide ranging discussion by DPAs and industry experts on the important role of accountability in data protection. The meaning of accountability and its role in enabling effective privacy protections for individuals while ensuring innovation by organizations informed the discussion, along with dialogue around the key elements of accountability and how specific requirements of the GDPR map to these core elements. An important topic of discussion during this session concerned how to reconcile the need for proactive engagement between companies and DPAs with enforcement practices.

The second panel on “How to Demonstrate Accountability Internally and Externally” progressed the discussion from what constitutes accountability to how to implement and demonstrate it in practice, both within an organization and externally to DPAs. Participants also discussed whether accountability should be showcased proactively and how it can be demonstrated by participation in accountability schemes such as Binding Corporate Rules and future GDPR certifications and codes of conduct.

The final session of the day on “Best Practices: How are DPAs Incentivizing Accountability?” considered how DPAs can incentivize accountability under the GDPR. A wide range of incentives that are – or could be - used to encourage organizations to implement strong accountability measures were discussed, along with those that feature in CIPL’s paper on incentivizing accountability.

The workshop formed part of CIPL’s ongoing work around the concept of accountability in data protection and reaching consensus on its essential elements. View the full workshop agenda. CIPL’s papers on The Case for Accountability: How it Enables Effective Data Protection and Trust in Digital Society and Incentivizing Accountability: How Data Protection Authorities and Law Makers Can Encourage Accountability are the latest papers in this initiative and form the foundations for more work on accountability to follow from CIPL .