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Surviving the GDPR (and storm Emma)

 

On 27 February 2018, the Task Force Data Protection Regulation (TF-DPR) met for the third time since its launch in September last year. On this occasoin, we were kindly hosted by HEAnet in Dublin. Notwithstanding the threat that the Beast from the East might disrupt all travel plans from the 27 onwards, all the 20 participants who attended in person (20 more joined us remotely) decided not to be intimidated by some temperamental weather.

A great meeting with a prolonged journey home

The meeting started with some very interesting presentations from Google and Microsoft about their data processor agreements, their service terms, and how they relate to the GDPR. Cloud discussions continued with Jan Meijer (UNINETT) who gave an update on the progress of the GÉANT Cloud Activity on a GDPR compliance assessment accelerator for cloud services. These were followed by an update on the progress of GÉANT on GDPR, in relation to its own services, by Ana Alves (GÉANT) and a presentation about the GÉANT code of conduct by Mikael Linden (CSC). After lunch, we got into knowledge-exchange mode to discuss the differences in fines, approaches to legitimacy, and in the way we reach out to universities and other member organisations when it comes to GDPR.

All the presentations can be found on the group’s wiki.

As these discussions went on, the weather outside started to become increasingly stormy. The snow began to fall quite heavily during our delicious dinner together and kept on falling and falling. Storm Emma kept some of us stranded in Dublin for a few days and gave others the excitement of using multiple means of transport (from ferries to trains) to get back home. However, even though all the bread had disappeared form the shelves and all the shops (and even most of the pubs!) were closed, we all had warm and safe places to stay and had the chance to immerse ourselves in some serious Netflix marathons – after working hours of course!

Next meeting – 23-24 April 2018

Our next meeting will take place somewhere that hardly ever sees the snow: Barcelona. Please join us there on April 23 and 24 for the last gathering before the GDPR goes into effect.

You can find all the info on our wiki and can register for our next meeting.

 

 

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