noyb and Access Now jointly hosted the workshop “One year after GDPR: Advancing rights through effective enforcement actions” from May 8 to 10 in Vienna. The workshop aimed to share best practices on how to detect data protection violations and how to strategically lodge complaints with the various data protection authorities. Among the attendees were representatives from public authorities, consumer rights organisations, researchers and NGOs from across Europe including Privacy International, Bits of Freedom, Algorithmwatch, Data Rights, Open Rights Group, Digital Rights Ireland, D3 and Homo Digitalis.
Collaboration on the European Level. The event was a great opportunity to join forces, collect feedback from practitioners and engage in fruitful discussions on the most strategic ways to advance citizens’ rights through effective enforcement actions. Collaborating at a European level between NGOs is a priority and, in this regard, the event certainly was a positive step towards the empowerment.
Focus on practical aspects of GDPR enforcement. The workshop was divided into four sessions which covered several practical elements to take into account when litigating under the GDPR, such as the analysis of privacy policies and datasets or the different enforcement options available under the European regulation. Every session was followed by a breakout session where participants joined forces in small groups to solve specific data protection issues and find the best venues for enforcement purposes.
Findings. Following the different panels, activities and discussions, the group observed that a substantial number of companies’ privacy practices are still violating the law. Despite expanding their compliance programs, businesses
are still grappling with their duties and responsibilities under the GDPR. It was noted that controllers often fail to comply with their duties, such as providing transparent and intelligible privacy policies or facilitating the exercise of data subjects’ rights.
This event would not have been possible without the generous support and funding from the Digital Freedom Fund. We deeply appreciate the assistance and hope to continue our cooperation in the future.
