Technology and technology neutrality - the GDPR lovebirds

SCRIPT presents

Technology and technology neutrality - the GDPR lovebirds

Speaker: Tristan Henderson LLM, School of Computer Science, University of St Andrews

Abstract:

Technology law is often intended to be technologically neutral (e.g. GDPR recital 15). This can help promote innovation by not discriminating against particular technologies, or prevent law from becoming out of date. But as Hildebrandt and Tielemans (2013) point out, technology neutral law might also require some technology specifics in order to prevent technological threats to human rights.

This talk will discuss ongoing empirical work with respect to the GDPR, looking at Article 20 (data portability), since this mentions specific technological requirements, and examining how these have been approached by data controllers. It will also look at Article 13 on the provision of information to data subjects, and discuss how technology could help in its implementation.

Tristan Henderson is a Senior Lecturer in Computer Science at the University of St Andrews. He has worked in the broad area of networked communications for two decades, ranging from networked first-person shooter games to wireless and peer-to-peer networking to social networks.  He is particularly interested in how to ethically collect and share large-scale network measurements, and has explored the use of technology to improve "informed" consent for online research data collection experiments. Currently he is interested in various aspects of the GDPR, such as using it as a telescope and/or microscope for collecting empirical data, and exploring how technology can help data subjects.

Tristan has degrees in Economics and Computer Science from Cambridge and UCL. Closer to home, he recently survived the LLM in Innovation, Technology and the Law at Edinburgh. For more information see https://tnhh.org/.