Home

With alarming frequency, ransomware hackers are sneaking into consumer and business computers, encrypting files containing photos, documents and other important data, and then demanding a ransom in exchange for the key needed to decrypt the files. At times, these hackers pose as the FBI or other law enforcement officials and claim that the ransom is a “fine” for viewing illegal material and that failure to pay the “fine” will result in criminal prosecution. Consumers, businesses, and government agencies are falling prey to these schemes, including hospitals whose servers may contain sensitive patient data. New forms of ransomware encrypt files of website operators, threatening not only their files containing stored data, but the very files needed to operate their websites. Other variants of ransomware are now targeting files on mobile devices. The Ransomware workshop will address questions such as:

How do ransomware extortionists gain access to consumer and business computers?

What role can consumer and business education play in preventing ransomware infections?

Are there steps consumers and businesses should be taking to reduce the risk of ransomware or to decrease its impact?

Are there technological measures that computer operating system and web browser designers can take to prevent ransomware?

Are there browser plug-ins or other tools that consumers and businesses can employ that will warn if their data is about to be encrypted?

What can be learned from criminal law enforcement’s efforts to combat ransomware?

If you fall prey to ransomware, should you pay the ransom?

If you pay the ransom, how likely are you to receive the decryption key and be able to view your files?

What happens if you don’t pay the ransom? Are your files lost forever?

Date and time: September 8, 2016, 9 AM – 3 PM

Location: Department of Transportation (DOT), 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE, Washington, DC

NIST and the Department of Transportation (DOT) will co-host a public workshop to gather input on the privacy controls in Appendix J of NIST Special Publication 800-53, Revision 4. The workshop will explore the effectiveness and challenges of applying the current privacy controls in 800-53 and whether changes should be made in the publication’s fifth revision. Panelists and attendees will participate in facilitated discussions on topics including potential amendments to the privacy control families, broader guidance on the relationship between the privacy and security controls, and the need for additional NIST guidance on the implementation of controls into better support privacy engineering practices in federal agencies.

Who Should Attend: System design and privacy engineers, privacy officers, senior agency officials for privacy (SAOPs) and privacy subject matter experts should attend this interactive workshop. Public and private sector attendees and academics welcome.

Registration: Click here to register!

Questions? Contact [email protected]

This event features the screenings of two short films, “The Adaptable Mind” and “ParenTechnology”, followed by a Q&A panel discussion with the filmmaker, Tiffany Shlain. Based on the films, we will explore the impact that technology is having on kids, parenting and the human mind.

The Federal Trade Commission will host a public workshop in Washington, DC on September 15, 2016 to examine the testing and evaluation of disclosures that companies make to consumers about advertising claims, privacy practices, and other information.

Effective disclosures are critical in helping consumers make informed decisions in the marketplace.

Many advertisers have used disclosures in an attempt to prevent their advertisements from being deceptive. Disclosures must be crafted with care both with respect to their language and presentation. Disclosures used in the marketplace are sometimes ineffective.  Commission staff has recommended that disclosures be tested for effectiveness.
Disclosures are also challenging in the privacy arena, whether disclosing to consumers that their physical location or online interactions are being tracked, or explaining privacy practices when consumers sign up for a service. Privacy policies are often long and difficult to comprehend and privacy-related icons may fail to communicate information meaningfully to consumers. Furthermore, the accompanying mechanisms for consumers to provide informed consent or exercise choices about the use of their data may also be confusing. The Commission has long encouraged the development and testing of shorter, clearer, easier-to-use privacy disclosures and consent mechanisms.
The FTC has issued guides to help businesses avoid deceptive claims, such as guidance related to endorsements, environmental claims, fuel economy advertising, and the jewelry industry. Often the guidance presents options for qualifying claims to avoid deception. In developing guides, the Commission has sometimes relied on consumer research to gauge whether specific disclosures can be used to qualify otherwise misleading claims.
The FTC has a long commitment to understanding and testing the effectiveness of consumer disclosure, and is especially interested in learning about the costs and benefits of disclosure testing methods in the digital age.  A number of factors impact the effectiveness of disclosures, including whether they contain the most essential information and consumers notice them, direct their attention towards them, comprehend them, and are able to use that information in their decision making.  Some testing methods are more appropriate than others for evaluating these factors.

The workshop is aimed at encouraging and improving the evaluation and testing of disclosures by industry, academics, and the FTC.  The FTC’s workshop will explore how to test the effectiveness of these disclosures to ensure consumers notice them, understand them and can use them in their decision-making.   It is intended to further the understanding of testing and evaluation of both offline and online consumer disclosures, including those delivered through icons, product labels, short text, long text, audio or video messages, interactive tools, and other media. Topics may include evaluation criteria, testing methodologies and best practices, case studies, and lessons learned from such testing.

Contentious Data is the kick-off  event of the DATACTIVE project, an interdisciplinary research project hosted at  the Department of Media Studies at the University of Amsterdam. DATACTIVE  investigates citizens’ engagement with massive data collection. It originates  from the observation that, with the diffusion of big data, citizens become increasingly aware of the critical role of information in modern societies. This awareness nurtures new social practices rooted on data and technology, which we term ‘data activism’. By increasingly involving ordinary users, data activism is a signal of a change in perspective and attitude towards massive data collection emerging within the civil society realm.

Contentious Data will bring together scholars and practitioners to explore the politics of big data from the perspective of activism and civil society.

Speakers include Sandra Braman (Texas A&M University), Alison Powell (London School of Economics), Hisham al-Miraat (Digital Rights Morocco), Linnet Taylor (Tilburg Institute for Law, Technology and Society), Dorien Zandbergen (University of Amsterdam), Jaromil/Denis Rojo (dyne.org), Geert Lovink (Institute for Network Cultures), and Stefania Milan (DATACTIVE Principle Investigator).

Contentious Data is sponsored by the European Research Council (ERC), the Amsterdam Centre for Globalisation Studies (ACGS), the Amsterdam School of Cultural Analysis (ASCA), and the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR).

The European Privacy Association (EPA) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) webinars will be held throughout the year and are aimed at all professionals interested in the regulation of data protection. Each webinar will be chaired by Dr. Paolo Balboni, President and Noriswadi Ismail, Scientific Director and members of our Scientific Committee and will last for 60 minutes, ending with a Q&A session.The webinars will focus on compliance, governance, business controls and operational aspects in relation to the forthcoming GDPR relevant for all companies doing business in Europe. The GDPR debate and discussion have dominated the European marketplace for the past 4 years. Organisations and stakeholders have 2 years to operationalise their GDPR readiness programme to avoid non-compliance enforcement actions from national Data Protection Authorities.NB: If you weren’t able to sign up before the first webinar it is still possible to sign up for the series. In compensation you will receive a detailed summary of the April 20th presentation.

The price of attendance for the remaining webinars is €670.00 (excluding VAT)
Fellows receive a special discount of 50% for a total of €350.00 (excluding VAT) for all remaining webinars

To become Fellow of EPA it is necessary to send your CV to info [@]europeanprivacyassociation. eu and subject to a positive EPA Board evaluation of your profile, you will need to contribute to EPA.  Fellow annual supportership is €100.00 (excluding VAT).
If you would like to know more about the benefits of becoming a Fellow please contact us.

– All webinars will be recorded in case you cannot attend and have paid for the package –

Feel free to contact us for further information.

Please RSVP to webinar [@] europeanprivacyassociation.eu

Event Description

Need to learn more about EU Privacy? Join us for a lively panel discussion of EU Privacy, including GDPR, Privacy Shield, Brexit and more.

Panelists include:

Dr. Kai Westerwelle, Partner at Taylor Wessing.

Kai Westerwelle is a Partner with the international law firm Taylor Wessing and co-chairs the firm’s US Group and Menlo Park representative office. He is a German Certified Specialist Lawyer in Information Technology Law and advises on IT-projects, such as cloud solutions and IoT, as well as on privacy matters for leading international companies. In addition, he lectures on privacy at the University of Dresden and compliance at the Frankfurt School of Business and Finance. Kai is the author of numerous publications and regularly speaks at national and international conferences. He is permanently listed in iam 250 “The World’s Leading Patent & Technology Licensing Lawyers”, “Best Lawyers” of German Handelsblatt, Legal 500, and Chambers. He is a recurrent recipient of the “ILO Client Choice Award” for IT-Law in Germany and the German Association of In-house Counsels has ranked him as one of ‘the most recommended data protection specialists’.

Additional panelists TBD (I’ll update as we confirm them – we have several in the works!).

Our moderator for the evening and UC Hastings host is Jill Bronfman.

Jill Bronfman is the Director of the Privacy and Technology Project at the Institute for Innovation Law and an Adjunct Professor of Law in Data Privacy and Compliance at UC Hastings. She was named to The Recorder’s 2014 list of the 50 Women Leaders in Tech Law. Previously, Professor Bronfman was an AGC and Network Security SME for Verizon where she designed and moderated several in-house training programs in data security and compliance. Professor Bronfman has presented on privacy and security issues at the RSA, International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP), and ISACA conferences, and has had papers accepted for Berkeley Law Privacy Law Scholars Conference (PLSC), Amsterdam Privacy Conference (APC2015), and U.N./Univ. of Geneva (2016).