The increasing pace of digitalisation and emerging new and disruptive technologies are testing data protection legislation. Monitoring the trajectory of these advancements remains central for the EDPS, supporting its supervision, advisory, and cooperation roles.

In light of this, the EDPS is boosting its commitment to enhance his contribution to the technology monitoring capabilities of the international data protection community. To achieve this goal, the EDPS actively fosters cooperation and facilitates information exchange among regulatory authorities and relevant stakeholders within and beyond the EU. This effort will also support the EDPS in expanding its internal technology monitoring and foresight capabilities.

In 2024, the EDPS has outlined the following activities to uphold this commitment:

  • Berlin Group Meeting - The EDPS will host the International Working Group on Data Protection in Technology (IWGDPT), also known as the Berlin Group, on the 18 and 19 November 2024 in Brussels. Comprising technology experts from worldwide data protection authorities as well as government agencies, interna-tional and non-governmental organisations, and academia, the IWGDPT places strategic importance on technological foresight as it shapes the group's working plan and initiatives. The EDPS is significantly contributing to the IWGDPT's fore-sight activities, also acting as lead rapporteur of a working paper on Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), to be published in spring.
  • IPEN Workshop - The EDPS will organise a new edition of the Internet Privacy Engineering Network (IPEN) workshop on 3 September 2024. The IPEN brings together privacy experts and engineers from public authorities, industry, academia, and civil society to discuss relevant challenges and developments for the engineering and technological implementation of data protection and privacy requirements. As in previous editions, the event takes place in conjunction with the Annual Privacy Forum as part of a broader set of joint initiatives with the EU Agency for Cybersecurity, ENISA.
  • TechDispatch - The EDPS will publish three issues of TechDispatch reports ex-plaining emerging technological developments and analysing their possible im-pacts on privacy and data protection. Two of these new publications will be pre-pared in collaboration with the Spanish Data Protection Supervisory Authority (AEPD).
  • TechSonar - The EDPS will publish a new edition of TechSonar. This publication aims to anticipate emerging technology trends, with the aim of better understanding future technology developments from a data protection perspective.