Spring guest lectures in data protection and GDPR

This spring the Faculty of Law offers for the first time the newly established elective course JUS294-2-A Privacy and data protection - GDPR. On this occasion, the course supervisor, Associate professor Malgorzata Cyndecka, invite four distinguished data protection experts who will hold guest lectures this semester. 

All lectures will be held via Zoom and are open to all interested students. 

Zoom links will be provided in due time. 

Below you will find more information about our experts who represent both the public and private sector and the topics they will talk about. After every lecture, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. 

Welcome!

30. March 2021 (Tuesday) 12.00 to 13.00 (not 12.15!)

Tobias Judin, Head of the Norwegian Data Protection Authority's international. "The IB case: how the right to data protection supports fair decision-making?"

Tobias is the Head if International at the Norwegian Data Protection Authority, where he is responsible for cross-border cases and international cooperation. He also represents Norway in the European Data Protection Board (EDPB). Tobias is a lawyer and soon-to-be technologist by education, and he has been working at the Data Protection Authority for five and a half years.

Last year several international (see e.g. here and here) and Norwegian media outlets (see e.g. here and here) reported that students of the International Baccalaureate (IB) received significantly lower grades than they anticipated. The reason behind this appeared to be that so-called “school context” and “historical data” have been used by the grading algorithm, in an attempt to compensate for the cancellation of exams due to the ongoing pandemic. The Norwegian Data Protection Authority has chosen to intervene in the matter. - In a way, students have been confined to a particular segment based on the historical results of their school, even though all students are different. At the same time, grading can have a major effect on their academic and professional careers and thus the rest of their lives. This is unfair to hard-working students who are unexpectedly denied educational opportunities, says Head of International Tobias Judin.

You may read the course supervisor’s short comment on the IB case, “A dystopian story about COVID-19, Artificial Intelligence setting grades and the GDPR”, here.

7. April 2021 (Wednesday) 12.00-13.30 (not 12.15!)

Register in advance by clicking here, or see the invitation.

Kristian Bygnes, The Norwegian Data Protection Authority (Datatilsynet).“The role of privacy law activism in shaping the European legal landscape”

Kristian Bygnes graduated from the University of Bergen law programme. His master thesis considered the legal status of inferences (assumptions made about a person based on collected data and probability) under the GDPR. After graduating, he interned for the privacy organization noyb in Vienna, where he worked closely on the “Out of Control” project by the Norwegian Consumer Council and the complaints filed against the adtech industry in conjunction with the published report. He currently works at the Norwegian Data Protection Authority (Datatilsynet).

27. April 2021 (Tuesday) at 10.00-11.30 (not 10.15!)

Register in advance by clicking here, or see the invitation. 

Ane Rode, Associate at Føyen Torkildsen, Oslo. “Schrems II: Consequences of the invalidation of EU-US Privacy Shield”

Ane is affiliated with Føyen Torkildsen’s ICT and Media department. She works mainly with privacy and IT legal issues, including the use and sharing of personal data, IT agreements and procurement and fintech. Rode graduated from the University of Bergen where she wrote her master thesis on who is responsible for personal data on a blockchain.

28. April 2021 (Wednesday) 12.15-14.00

Register in advance by clicking here, or see the invitation.

Gry Hvidsten, Partner at Wikborg Rein's Oslo office, Head of WR's Data Protection Practice and deputy of the firm's Technology and Digitalisation practice. Gry will talk about her experience working with data protection issues, in particular in the context of employment.

She has been working with data protection issues for more than 15 years; in the Legislation Department of the Ministry of Justice, in Norway's largest company, Equinor, and as a long-time business lawyer. She assists both public and private companies in a variety of industries with questions related to compliance, introduction of new technology and new solutions, privacy in the workplace, whistleblowing/investigation, digitalization and digital business, sanctions and GDPR, electronic marketing, big data analytics, GDPR due diligence related to transactions etc. Gry also assists with agreements related to the handling of data, including data processing agreements and transfer agreements related to the provision of cloud services. She is particularly committed to helping businesses achieve compliance in practical day-to-day business as well as identifying how data protection regulations could contribute to more effective business development if the right assessments are made early in the process.