computers, privacy and data protection conference 2026

I attended the Computers, Privacy and Data Protection Conference (CPDP) in Brussels for the first time. The conference has lots of different rooms mostly in the same building where multiple panels, workshops and other things are happening at the same time in specific slots, so you gotta choose what you participate in (was difficult at times!). Next to that, you have some fun rooms, some quiet working spaces and spaces to just hang out and talk. Based on the programme, the focus this year was definitely on age verification/youth 'protection', human AI relationships, consumer rights and marginalized groups. Lots of different groups and people present; people from the EU Commission and Parliament, AlgorithmWatch, Bits of Freedom, noyb and Max Schrems, IGLYO, EDRi, Equilabs, Equinox Initiative for Racial Justice, INTITEC, the EDPS and Wojciech Wiewiórowski, Privacy International, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human…