European data protection and digital regulation are under pressure. While the expansion of the legal framework — from the GDPR to the Digital Services Act and the AI Regulation — has long been regarded as key to strengthening European values, digital sovereignty, and an independent innovation model, voices from politics and business are increasingly warning against “overregulation”: Excessive data protection and overly restrictive AI regulation, the critics argue, hinder data-driven business models, delay research, and weaken Europe’s international competitiveness. At the same time, geopolitical shifts and economic pressures threaten to undermine painstakingly established protection standards.

In contrast, there is the view that a high level of data protection and human-centered AI regulation can be a strategic advantage: They build trust, enhance the quality of digital products and services, open up new markets —such as in the privacy tech sector — strengthen digital sovereignty, and have a global impact through the “Brussels effect.” Empirical studies paint a nuanced picture: Companies report rising compliance costs, legal uncertainties, and a shift from radical to more incremental innovations. At the same time, innovative and highly digitized companies in particular are using the GDPR and other EU regulations to differentiate themselves positively from the competition and improve internal governance structures. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and research institutions, however, struggle with unclear legal situations and high administrative burdens.

Against this backdrop, the question arises as to how digital innovation and European values can be reconciled in such a way that Europe can compete globally without calling fundamental rights and democratic structures into question. Are data protection and other European values an obstacle to innovation — or rather a prerequisite for trust, digital resilience, data sovereignty, and sustainable competitiveness? What innovations do we want — and under what conditions?

Key areas of conflict emerge at the intersection of “Innovation First” and “Values by Design”: demands for maximum data access for AI, personalized medicine, smart cities, or security research clash with principles such as purpose limitation, data minimization, and informational self-determination. Small and medium-sized enterprises as well as startups face disproportionate compliance burdens, while large platforms leverage economies of scale. Freedom of research clashes with the rights of data subjects, with trade and business secrets, and with the requirements of democratic governance. At the same time, practical questions remain unanswered: How can AI systems be trained without accessing vast amounts of protected data? How can the widespread behavioral analysis conducted by platforms be limited? How can research data be shared across borders without undermining protection standards?

The annual conference of the Privacy 2026 Platform will explore how to shape value-oriented innovation that both safeguards fundamental rights and strengthens Europe’s technological and economic capacity to act. The conference aims to conduct this debate from an interdisciplinary perspective, addressing the following central questions:

On the tension between innovation and regulation:

• Which values are socially desirable, which are indispensable, and which elements of a possible compromise align with the conditions for successful innovation?
• How does data protection regulation actually affect innovation processes? What effects can be observed on research, innovation activities, and competitiveness?
• How can protection standards lead to better, more competitive innovations in the medium term?

On legal and regulatory aspects:

• How should the search for the correct interpretation or balancing of regulations be organized? What leeway do courts and supervisory authorities need?
• How can authorizations for research and innovation be designed in a practical manner? Are the existing privileges sufficient?
• In which areas are new regulatory approaches needed, and in which can regulation be reduced or made more manageable?

Regarding technical and organizational solutions:

• How can digitalization in regulation, in the sense of “compliance-as-code,” contribute to automatable implementation and control?
• Can technology design strike a balance between innovation and the protection of European values?
• Can Privacy-Enhancing Technologies (PETs) resolve the conflict between data protection and data use? What are their limitations?
• How can “Privacy by Design and by Default” evolve from a compliance requirement into a strategic innovation approach?
• What role can data trustees, data rooms, and data cooperatives play?
• How can technical security, IT security research, and the protection of fundamental rights be reconciled?

On economic and competitive dimensions:

• How does digital regulation (e.g., GDPR, AI Regulation, DSA) affect the competitive conditions for SMEs, startups, and large corporations?
• Does data protection regulation create new markets (privacy tech, compliance tools)? Who benefits from this?
• Does European data protection act as a global standard, or does it lead to the migration of innovation? Why and to what extent?
• What economic value does trust, grounded in European values, hold for the acceptance and diffusion of digital innovations and digital business models?

On societal and value-based perspectives:

• How can a balance between freedom of research, innovation interests, and other fundamental rights be achieved in practice?
• Under what conditions can value-oriented innovations “Made in Europe” become a competitive advantage?
• How can digital sovereignty be strengthened through value-oriented innovation?

On policy design and governance:

• What should the balance between enforcing existing rules and new regulation look like?
• What institutional prerequisites are necessary for innovation-friendly regulation?
• What might evaluation mechanisms look like that systematically capture the impacts of innovation and enable evidence-based adjustments?

Regarding the overarching theme, as well as all related topics (data protection, privacy, surveillance, internet policy, AI regulation, cybersecurity), we invite submissions of proposals for presentations (talks and posters) from academic and industrial researchers, political and economic decision-makers, data protection authorities, non-governmental organizations, civil society, and all relevant disciplines (including computer science, law, economics, sociology, psychology, philosophy, communication studies, and political science).

Keynote Presentations

• Sandra Wachter, Oxford University, Oxford Internet Institute
  
• Thomas Roth, Boehringer Ingelheim, Head of Global Data Protection & AI
• Cláudio Teixeira, Head of Digital Policy of BEUC, the European Consumer Organisation
  

Submission, Review, Publication

Proposals may be submitted by June 15, 2026, in the form of a substantive “extended abstract” (length: 500 to 1,000 words) via the conference management system EasyChair:

https://easychair.org/conferences?conf=plattformprivatheit20

The evaluation and selection of presentations and posters for the conference program will be carried out by the Program Committee (see below) and the Advisory Board of the Privacy Platform.

Selected presentation papers will be published in expanded form (6,500 words) after the conference in a collection to be published in the series “Privacy and Self-Determination in the Digital World” by Nomos Verlag, Baden-Baden. Poster presenters have the opportunity to publish a short paper in the poster proceedings, which will be released at the time of the conference.

The conference language is German; presentations in English are possible upon agreement.

Important Dates

Deadline for abstract submission ................................................... June 15, 2026 (AoE)

Conference registration ........................................................................ starting July 1, 2026

Notification of acceptance .................................................................. July 15, 2026

Publication of the conference program ......................................... End of July 2026

Conference .................................................................................................. October 8–9, 2026

Submission of papers for the conference proceedings ......... December 31, 2026

Publication date of the conference proceedings ....................... approx. June 2027

Organizers

Program Committee

Michael Friedewald, Alexander Roßnagel, Barbara Ferrarese, Murat Karaboga, Christian Geminn

Scientific Communication

Barbara Ferrarese

Organization

Sabine Muhr

Contact

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