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so either obviously this is a dramatic
morning and AH you know too we have to
discuss the elephant in the room excuse
the pun because elephant is the symbol
of the Republicans also mm I think
regardless of political opinion this is
a stunning surprise and I know it's very
early but I want to ask you what will a
trump presidency mean for privacy for
the privacy profession for the agency
and if you want for Washington DC it's a
big question where and let me just start
though by by thanking I a PP and you for
the invitation to be here I really am
delighted although I confess that it
seems a bit odd for me to be here in
Brussels and not to be in the u.s. today
of all days yes there has unquestionably
been a stunning and unexpected outcome
in the election in the United States
that being said I believe that the
issues that we are discussing today
about privacy and data security are ones
that are of monumental importance and
with any change in administration there
are always going to be of course shifts
and different approaches taken but I
believe that there will be a continued
emphasis placed on these very important
issues I certainly know from our work at
the FTC that these are issues that are
of significant importance to the
American people and as a consequence I
think that will continue to be there
will be continued effort to focus on the
protection of privacy and investment in
cyber security and
tending to the privacy implications and
and security implications of emerging
technologies I can certainly speak much
more reliably of course with respect to
the FTC in particular and the Federal
Trade Commission is an independent
bipartisan agency and I can tell you
that historically there have been less
of a swing across administration's when
it comes to the agency priorities and
there is no question in my mind that
even in the face of a change of
leadership which will certainly occur at
the agency these issues will continue it
important for for the FTC I think we
will continue to be focused on
enforcement on significant policy work
and research that the agency is engaging
I think that will continue and of course
also focus on the importance of
educating consumers and educating
businesses so I am confident that any
change in leadership those priorities
will continue equally important of
course will also be I believe the
enforcement of the privacy shield
program great so Isabella want to hear
your thoughts about the same topic as
Giovanni said in his keynote address
really a staggering change over a short
period of time breaks it the Trump
election French elections are coming up
in a couple of months what's next for
privacy well and I will have three
reactions towards the at least the US
election and probably one of the remark
is common between the brexit and these
presidential election I think first it
shows that we have to listen to the
peoples and in all these countries
peoples have expressed something and so
I think it's a very strong political
message to the politicians and probably
in France we should realize what could
be the consequences second I would say
that it makes me feel that all the polls
and all the algorithm you know that are
presented as key leve to all types of
problems should be taken with
cautiousness because obviously the
figures are not so simple and you just
can't rely only on the device on an
algorithm to have the results I mean
human nature is a little bit more
complex and third and I would echo to
what edit just said and more technically
we have developed with the United States
a very good relationship as regards
international data flows and we have
very close contacts with the department
of commerce with the FTC with the D odni
and and i hope this very good
relationship is going to to be pursued
and i'm quite happy to what edit just
said because i think this is something
of great value the relationship we have
developed between our two countries on
privacy this is a common subject we had
in together and so I hope the new
administration is going to to to carry
along the same lines great Giovanni I'm
eager to hear your thoughts about the
same issue but picking off on something
that Isabel just said the whole premise
of big data analysis and I know there is
a project that EDPs is working on data
FX trying to frame the ethical context
for big data the whole premise is that
we collect a lot of data we look
the machines kind of churned through it
and we draw lessons about individual
preferences and thoughts and behaviors
and yet here we've seen over the past
year poll after poll all over the US and
in each of the 50 states get absolutely
wrong you know the choice between just
two alternatives up what does this mean
for big data analysis oh good question
but I cannot say business as usual
because of course I mean this long night
will have an impact but who knows we see
a distance that the elected president is
considered by someone as partly
unpredictable so it could be that he
will surprise us with something positive
in terms of data but I see a trend
internationally in terms of I mean
cooperation mutual recognition synergies
and I think it would be difficult to
oppose to this trend big data is only a
future if we will invest a lot of
efforts in terms of big data protection
if we allow people to be in control so
transparency first and and and new
effective ways to I mean make existing
principles more effective in practice I
think this is the challenge the ethical
exercise of course aims at focusing on
what else we should do in addition to
two rules my vision is that data
protection legislation consumer low
competition law cannot give all the
answers something more is to be to be
explored and I would really welcome that
even the new administration can can
simply be on the same track we
we have a lot of homeworks in terms of
joint review of existing legal
instruments I think they are essential
for business purposes and institutional
relationships and we do in Europe have
homeworks we we are working to ensure
that the let's say implementation do
implement a shin is not the right word
of the gtp are by member states level is
consistent with this process in terms of
harmonization and I really appreciated
the commitment of Christopher Graham and
Elizabeth denim to say regardless of
what the outcome will be about brexit in
any event GDP are will be will be a
reality in in UK it will enter into full
application by May 2018 among confident
that regardless of the of the outcome
that they will continue working in in
such and such a perspective so perhaps
you may expect that I comment in a
pessimistic way but but after such a
long night let me be optimistic that's
great we appreciate that Giovanni either
I've you'd the Fair Credit Reporting Act
vikre as one of the first pieces of
legislation that actually first saw some
of the issues and problems involved with
big data including getting it wrong and
assigning people scores that don't
really fit their profile which might
have a real impact on their employment
or credit or insurance and of course
faker is one of the pillars of FTC
enforcement and privacy space how do you
see this you know potential of big data
to get it wrong look the question that
you raised and certainly the outcome of
our election really does
this rate the fact that we have to be
very careful that we've become enamored
of data and big data and algorithms and
I know that we at the FTC have been
saying this and other DPAs have been
saying this which is we have to be
careful when it comes to the conclusions
that one draws from big data analytics
we the FTC issued a report a big data
report in January of this year we
cautioned that there may be
circumstances in which just simply the
fact that you have a huge volume of data
doesn't necessarily mean that the out
that the results are more accurate and
that there may be incomplete data sets
you may be missing the views of a large
segment of the population and I
certainly think that's one lesson to be
drawn from what happened in the United
States in this election in addition to
that I think there is also a concern
that we have that the use of big data
analytics may also reinforce existing
biases and I think we have to be very
cautious about that and we need to and
and certainly in turn our sphere in
terms of how companies use this data we
think that it's very important that
companies really examine the the results
that they're getting from the use of big
data analytics and ensure that not only
are they complying with consumer
protections like the Fair Credit
Reporting Act but also that they ensure
that the outcomes truly are our
appropriate fair and so I think we need
to be taking a hard look at this and I
know that certainly in the u.s. there
will be a very close self-examination
about what went wrong when it came to
trying to evaluate consumer preferences
public open and yeah um so all three of
you mentioned privacy shield that now
it's gonna be a big theme here and
conference I want to ask you javonni and
usable up in just about six months we
are going to have the first
annual review of privacy shield how are
we doing and also maybe is shield GDP
already itself Giovanni if you want to
start you know how DPAs have interacted
and commented the privacy shield we we
should recognize that the the final
outcome is much better than the initial
proposal many improvements particularly
on the commercial side but we were not
of course when under percent satisfied
and it's difficult to say the privacy
shield is a court proof and as you see
from headlines it may be subject to
scrutiny soon but the joint to review
exercise goes in in parallel it is not
performed by DPS exclusively but we are
respecting to be associated as the
Commission as declare in in the relevant
decision other exercises are taking
place with regard to other legal
instruments as the commissioners
publicly announced a decision is to be
taken now to amend decisions on
contractual closest binding corporate
rules and others adequacy decisions
included with regard to the exercise of
powers by by DPS and this would be
extremely extremely relevant so 20
networking party is working hard on all
these dossiers so looking to the future
about GDP are but also administering the
the present so we have to consider the
current legal framework but we have to
see how the shield and any other legal
eastman may work in in the next in the
next future it's a lot of work with
regard to different items I don't go now
into into details and it absorbs
something like thirty thirty five
percent of
the activities of the relevant subgroups
am I positive or I mean possible
optimistic here okay give me a couple of
minutes optimistic down today yes back
off man on the specific issue give me a
couple of minutes to think about okay
Isabell you want uncommon yeah just to
add that it's true that the first joint
review is going to be a critical meeting
because at this meeting we will estimate
if the commitments of the US government
is real are real effective in reality or
not because as Giovanni said we have on
the final text of the shield expressed
concerns on various points in particular
on the Ombudsperson and on the mass
collection and in front of these
concerns the US administration has said
has taken some commitments so the
question now is all these commitments
real effective proved through metrics or
not so the the joint the first joint
meeting is a real is a real day and
through this real day we will be able as
the Working Party 29 level to assess
finally if the shield is adequate or not
so we are preparing this meeting very
seriously with the all our American
counterparts and we are because they are
various procedures to set in particular
the EU centralized body you may don't
not know what is the EU centralized body
it is the process the channel through
which possible complaints on public
security issues
related to the shield should be conveyed
from Europe to the United States and use
know that this is one of the subject on
which the American government has really
innovated through the ombudsperson so we
have to set this gu centralized body for
the possible complaints to be simply
conveyed to the US we also have to set
the system for the commercial complaints
if they exist so all these elements will
allow us to have information to prepare
the joint of view great either comments
on this yes and let me sound a note of
of optimism and cautious optimism but
optimism nonetheless I can certainly
tell you from the American perspective
that the commitment to the privacy
shield is absolutely real sincere and I
can say this firsthand just simply from
the significant effort that was
undertaken in conjunction with the
Department of Commerce and with our
colleagues at the European Commission to
negotiate what we believed is their
robust what we believe is a robust
framework that we will ultimately stand
the test of time it was also conceived
and negotiated as a forward-looking
framework and also we set up
intentionally this annual review process
to address concerns that might arise but
let me also say that the success of the
privacy shield program does depend on
collaboration and one very significant
effort on the part certainly of the
Federal Trade Commission when it comes
to enforcement is the strengthening of
the ties with European DPAs in order to
ensure success to deepen that
collaboration and that level of
communication which I don't think had
been in place in the past when it came
to safe harbor and I think that we've
made significant efforts to rectify it
and I want to really acknowledge
Isabelle in her work
in her both capacity is a head of the
article 29 working party but also have a
cameo in this regard and I also know
that we at the FTC look forward to
continuing our engagement with with
other GPA so I so I believe that it's a
robust framework and I'm cautiously
optimistic great mm-hmm Edith Isabelle
Giovanni I think on behalf of everyone
in the room here at the privacy
profession and I PP thank you for your
leadership and for your engagement with
us the privacy profession thank you