European privacy officials tackle the big issues at Brussels conference

Duration: 15:28

The International Association of Privacy Professionals’ Europe Data Protection Congress attracted large crowds in Brussels last week, with a plenty of meaty policy and enforcement issues on the table. Irish Data Protection Commission head Helen Dixon suggested that the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation’s system of cross-border enforcement wasn’t “built for speed;” while a trio of Meta Platforms companies — Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram — are being scrutinized by the bloc’s national data-protection authorities over privacy concerns. Privacy advocate Max Schrems delighted the audience with some props – a black box and rubber stamp – to criticize a new court set up by the latest EU-US data transfer agreement, which he vowed to challenge. MLex’s Brussels-based data-privacy team was able to beat the crowds, follow the ins and outs of the debates and buttonhole key players at the margins of the conference. Our reporters recorded this podcast as the conference wound down.