Judith Rauhofer delivers keynote speech at 2n​d​ Istanbul Privacy Symposium

Ms Judith Rauhofer, Associate Director of the SCRIPT Centre, delivered the keynote speech at the 2n​d​ Istanbul Privacy Symposium “Law, Ethics, and Technology", an annual conference organisation hosted by the Bilgi Information Technology Law Institute on behalf of the Global Network of Internet and Society Research Centres. The event was held in Istanbul in memory of the late Giovanni Buttarelli, European Data Protection Supervisor from 2014-2019.

In her talk “Beyond Consent”, Ms Rauhofer discussed how the fairness principle set out in Article 6 of the GDPR could be used to limit individuals’ right to authorise the use of their personal data by means of consent. The talk noted that the right to individual control over personal data that is embedded in EU data protection law is not absolute and instead acts as a proxy for other values, including human dignity, liberty and autonomy. The role of data protection law should therefore be to protect those underlying values rather than the idea of control itself, particularly in situations of unequal bargaining power where data uses on the basis of an individual’s consent are likely to harm not just the individual themselves but the rights of others or important objectives of general or public interest.