Scientific Communities as a Driver of Research Progress in Data Protection– Prof. Stefan Schiffner (H-BRS) in panel at Annual Privacy Forum 2025

After a long day of presentations and discussions on privacy, Michael Friedewald (Fraunhofer ISI & Plattform Privatheit), Kai Rannenberg (Goethe University Frankfurt), Prokopios Drogkaris (ENISA), and Stefan Schiffner (Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences) discussed the importance and challenges of creating and maintaining a subject-matter community.

This was a particularly relevant topic in light of Fabienne Tegeler’s (ENISA) opening talk in the morning, in which she explained the reasons why ENISA is scaling back its support for the event — despite acknowledging that privacy plays a vital role in cybersecurity and that a profound understanding of the interrelation between privacy and cybersecurity is essential.

Other contributions during the first day highlighted the complexity of the socio-technical challenges surrounding privacy. Topics ranged from new technologies and their impact on privacy — such as Marta Beltrán’s question “Interfacing Human Brains: What Could Go Wrong?” — to Harshvardhan J. Pandit’s analysis “Simple Now, Complex Later: The Questionable Efficacy of Diluting GDPR Article 30(5)”, which discussed how minimal the actual savings are from reducing documentation obligations.

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