In the run up to the 2025 edition of CPDP.ai, we are assembling the Privacy Camp community for the Digital Rights Lounge – powered by Privacy Camp, a space to explore key issues impacting digital rights from perspectives from academia, artists, civil society, advocacy, activism, impacted groups and other stakeholders.
Logistics
- What: Digital Rights Lounge – powered by Privacy Camp
- When: Tuesday, 20 May 2025. Start at 1pm (light lunch). Start of programme at 2pm. End of programme at 5pm. This is in-person event only.
- Where: BeCentral, Cantersteen 12, 1000 Brussels.
- Co-organised by LSTS, EDRi and Privacy Salon
| TIME | TITLE | DESCRIPTION |
| 13:00 – 14:00 | Light lunch | |
| 14:00 – 14:10 | Welcome from the organisers | EDRi, LSTS and Privacy Salon are delighted to welcome you to the Digital Rights Lounge – Powered by Privacy Camp! Hear a brief introduction and scene-setting from the organisers |
| 14:10 – 15:00 | Parallel workshops: “What are we fighting to protect? Rights, resistance, the planet and beyond” | Choose one of the interactive parallel workshops, all focused around the power and potential of digital rights to enable us to exist with freedom, safety and dignity: Workshop 1: Data protection: Remedies & enforcement What’s happening with digital rights enforcement? Is access to remedies improving – or getting more tangled than ever? In this session, we will explore key developments shaping the future of enforcement in data protection, from the practical implications of the new GDPR Procedural Regulation to challenges in cross-border cooperation. We will also unpack the growing role of collective redress and other tools that aim to make enforcement more effective and rights more actionable. Session animated by Itxaso Domínguez de Olazábal (EDRi) and Gloria González Fuster (LSTS/VUB), feat. Romain Robert (EDPS), Úrsula Pachl (noyb) and Fernando Hortal Foronda (BEUC). Workshop 2: The importance of privacy in resisting authoritarianism It’s easy to feel demoralised when we look at political leaders in Europe and across the world – but resistance is not just possible, it is necessary. We will start with hearing from Ella Jakubowska (EDRi) about how the paper bag became a symbol of our privacy in public spaces and Aljosa Ajanovic (EDRi) about the use of privacy tools to resist spyware and to safeguard different modes of resistance. Then we will open up the discussion to explore how the right to privacy can help us fight global authoritarianism, build international solidarity, and fight for alternative legal, political and social systems that put people, planet and democracy at their heart. Workshop 3: Exploring environmental justice and digital rights While some lawmakers see tech and AI as the solution to all our societal problems, the Green Deal has gone brown and laws to protect the environment are being slashed left, right and center. The vast resource consumption, raw material extraction and other forms of environmental degradation perpetuated by Europe’s tech agenda are impacting people across the world, Join this interactive and participatory session to share, discover and strategise about our collective power at the intersection of the digital rights and environmental justice fields. Hosted by Claire Fernandez (EDRi) with interventions from Blue Tiyavorabun (EDRi), Mute Schimpf (Friends of the Earth Europe) and Jill McArdle (Beyond Fossil Fuels). Workshop 4: The internet and artivism The session tries to encompass different levels of expertise by bringing together artists and non-artists to discuss the visualisation of activism through art, chaired by Privacy Salon’s Thierry Vandenbussche. Ahnjili ZhuParris is an AI engineer, artist, and science communicator. Ahnjili’s PhD research focused on patient-centered development of machine learning algorithms. Frederik De Wilde is an artist working at the intersection of art, science, technology, and design. His practice explores the inaudible, intangible, and invisible in digital and physical spaces, critically engaging with the societal and environmental shifts driven by technology. |
| 15:00 – 15:30 | Coffee break | |
| 15:30 – 17:00 | Plenary discussion: “Simplification? Complicated times for rights, justice and democracy!” | Panelists will engage with each other – and the audience – to explore how the EU simplification (aka deregulation) agenda is threatening the collective (European and global) struggle. This includes decades-long work for justice and rights relating to the environment, corporate accountability, digital/data protection, equality, and more besides. More importantly, the session seeks to explore what we can collectively do to resist this agenda – working across fields – to ensure that laws and policies that put people, planet and democracy ahead of private profit and greed. We are delighted to have our panelists: Alyna Smith (independent advocate on migration and digital rights) Dr Katherine Nolan (TU Dublin) Oyidiya Oji (European Network Against Racism) Wojciech Wiewiórowski (EDPS) Bram Vranken (Corporate Europe Observatory) The session will be moderated by Ella Jakubowska (EDRi). |
This informal afternoon among friends, old and new, will be a moment for critical thinking and collective exploration of latest developments regarding digital rights, focusing how they can enable us to collectively resist harms, fight back against power imbalances, protect the rule of law and re-energise our rights and freedoms.