Authors Julia Straatman and Lysa Ngouateu have published a (Dutch) blog post on the Data School website about Data School‘s visit to the yearly Computers, Privacy and Data Protection (CPDP) conference. This year, the conference took place in Brussels (Belgium) from 22-24 May. Data School moderated two panels and hosted an interactive workshop.

Data School at CPDP 2024

The first panel was moderated by Mirko Tobias Schäfer and was titled ‘DIY Governance! Trickle-Down Policy Meets Bottom-up Activism‘. You can watch the recording of this panel here.

The second panel was moderated by Iris Muis and was titled ‘Beyond Failures: Repairing the Future of AI with Public Values‘. You can watch the recording of this panel here.

The interactive workshop was hosted by Julia Straatman and Lysa Ngouateu and was titled ‘Introducing FRAIA: the Fundamental Rights and Algorithms Impact Assessment‘ (Impact Assessment Mensenrechten en Algoritmes, IAMA in Dutch). This instrument is a means to test high-risk algorithms for their (potential) impact on human rights. This workshop was such a succes that 50+ participants attended the workshop, instead of the intended maximum of 25 participants.

What next?

In the future, the Data School team hopes to use the knowledge and contacts they have gained at CPDP to make an impact on the practical implementation of Article 27 AI Act of the European AI Regulation. This AI Act prescribes an obligation to perform a so-called ‘fundamental rights impact assessment’ for high-risk algorithms.

The FRAIA is such an impact assessment, and was mentioned in several panel discussions during CPDP as an example of a concrete implementation of the obligation at European level. It is therefore very possible that the FRAIA will not only become a well-known phenomenon in the Netherlands, but will also be put on the map in Europe among European policymakers.

The Data School team is hopeful to have increased their impact by sharing knowledge and expertise on both the FRAIA and other core concepts such as public values, digital ethics and their intersection with policy!

For more information about the work of Data School, please contact dataschool@uu.nl.