Issues related to cybersurveillance and »big data« have assumed increasing importance in recent years with the Snowden revelations which show that the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) is running a massive cybersurveillance operation.

Increasingly, private corporations are collecting »big data« about citizens, and using that information to target potential consumers. The importance of the issue is underscored by the fact that the EU has been struggling with its digital agenda since 2011, with a strong focus on cybercrime, e-privacy, and data protection. On 8 April 2014, the EU Court of Justice (ECJ) delivered a milestone decision (Digital Rights Ireland), ruling that the EU mandated mass surveillance »entails an interference with the fundamental rights of practically the entire European population«. This case and the Google Spain case about the right to be forgotten demonstrate the urgent need of the European reform of data protection, which could be agreed in the first half of 2016. In that context and due to the fact that the internet is a global communication tool, a key issue will also be to bridge the different concepts of privacy prevailing in the U.S. and Europe.

Die Veranstaltung hat am 17. Juli 2015 in Englisch stattgefunden.