Team

Joe Cannataci

Head of the Department of Information Policy & Governance Faculty of Media & Knowledge Sciences, University of Malta Full Professor, Chair of European Information Policy & Technology Law University of Groningen

Prof. Cannataci is head of the Department of Information Policy & Governance at the Faculty of Media & Knowledge Sciences of the University of Malta. He also co-founded and continues as Co-director (on a part-time basis) of STeP (Security, Technology & e-Privacy Research Group) at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, where he is Full Professor, holding the Chair of European Information Policy & Technology Law. In April 2022 Professor Joe Cannataci was appointed by the Council of Europe as its lead expert to guide work on the interpretation of Convention 108, the world’s largest and only international treaty regulating privacy and data protection. This new responsibility for Cannataci follows that of the UN’s first-ever Special Rapporteur on the Right to Privacy from which role he stepped down in August 2021 after having served the maximum of two successive three year-terms in the post. A Fellow of the British Computer Society (FBCS) and UK Chartered Information Technology Professional (CITP), his law background meets his techie side as a Senior Fellow and Associate Researcher at the CNAM Security-Defense-Intelligence Department in Paris, France as well as the Centre for Health, Law and Emerging Technologies at the University of Oxford. His past roles include Vice-Chairman/Chairman of Council of Europe’s (CoE) Committee of Experts on Data Protection 1992-1998, Working Parties on: Data Protection and New technologies (1995-2000); Data Protection & Insurance (1994-1998); CoE Rapporteur on Data Protection and Police (1993; 2010; 2012); CoE Expert Consultant on Data Protection and Cybercrime (2012-2014); UNESCO Expert Consultant on Privacy & Transparency on the Internet (2015); Scientific Co-ordinator of multiple EU FP7 & H2020 research projects focussing on privacy.

Mariavittoria Catanzariti

Research Associate, Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies European University Institute

Joining the European University Institute (EUI) as Jean Monnet Fellow in 2017, Mariavittoria Catanzariti is currently Research Associate at the Robert Shuman Centre for Advanced Studies (EUI) and Adjunct Professor of Law & Ethics of Innovation & Sustainability at LUISS University. Barrister at law since 2010, she obtained a PhD in European Law in 2011 from Roma Tre University and the Italian Scientific Qualification as Associate Professor in Legal Sociology in 2018. Her main research interest revolves around the interaction of digital transformation and information society with the law. Her publications cover different legal areas such as privacy and data protection, law & technologies, human rights and legal sociology.

Josep Domingo-Ferrer

UNESCO Chair in Data Privacy Universitat Rovira i Virgili

Josep Domingo-Ferrer is a Distinguished Professor of Computer Science and an ICREA-Acadèmia Research Professor at Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona, Catalonia. He is the founder and the director of CYBERCAT-Center for Cybersecurity Research of Catalonia. He also founded and led the UNESCO Chair in Data Privacy. He is an associated researcher at the VP-IP Chair of Institut Mines-Télécom, Paris, France. His research interests include security and privacy technologies, and in particular, anonymization/statistical disclosure control, anti-discrimination in machine learning and data mining, and cryptography. More generally, he is interested in ethics by design in information technology. He is an IEEE Fellow, an ACM Distinguished Scientist and an Elected Member of Academia Europaea and the International Statistical Institute. He has received several research awards.

Mayo Fuster

Internet Interdisciplinary Institute Universitat Oberta de Catalunya

Mayo Fuster Morell is the lead researcher of Dimmons Research Group of the Internet Interdisciplinary Institute of the Open University of Catalonia (UOC), and the director of the Barcelona UOC Chair in digital economy: for a sharing economy focused on people’s welfare and the Right to the City gathering the UOC, the Barcelona City Council and Barcelona Activa. In addition, she is a faculty associate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society – Harvard University. She is the UOC’s lead researcher of the National program project “Gender Digital project on gender equality in the digital sphere”, and the European projects PLUS: Platform Labor in Urban Spaces, European project DECODE Building the next generation of cooperative data platforms for digital sovereignty, and P2Pvalue: Techno-social platform for sustainable models and value generation in commons-based peer production. Furthermore, Dimmons Research Group promotes feminist digitalization of social economy though Matchimpulsa.barcelona, an enterprise promotion program of 130 companies in Barcelona. In 2010, she concluded her PhD thesis at the European University Institute in Florence on the governance of common-based peer production, and has numerous publications in the field.

Vanesa Gil Laredo

Head of Information Security & Risk Management Governance BBVA

Vanesa Gil Laredo is Head of Information Security & Risk Management Governance at BBVA. She is also President of the ISACA Madrid Chapter. During her professional career, she has managed and performed many projects related to Information Security Management, IT Governance and Compliance, like the implementation of Information Security Management Systems, development of Security Strategic Plans, PCI DSS assessments, PCI DSS on site audits, development of Business Continuity Plans and risk assessments, consultancy for the compliance of data protection law and development of security policies and procedures. She has been the Primary Contact of S21Sec for the PCI Security Standards Council and responsible for the PCI DSS Compliance Services in S21Sec. Her experience includes the development of new security consultancy products and services, as well as commercial and presales activities such as identification of commercial opportunities, development of commercial proposals and sales presentations.

Evangelos Markatos

Head of Distributed Computing Systems and Cyber Security Research Lab Institute of Computer Science, Foundation for Research and Technology - Hellas

Evangelos Markatos is a professor of Computer Science at the University of Crete. He received his diploma in Computer Engineering from the University of Patras and the MSc and PhD in Computer Science from the University of Rochester. He is the founding head of the Distributed Computing Systems and Cybersecurity Lab at FORTH-ICS where he conducts research in the broader area of computer systems with a special emphasis in Network Security and Privacy. He has been a member (i) of the permanent stakeholders group of ENISA (European Network and Information Security Agency) and (ii) of the Academic Advisory Network of Europol’s EC3 (European Cybercrime Center). He is currently a member of the Partnership Board of ECSO: the European Cyber Security Organization. He has served (i) as the founding coordinator of SysSec: The European Network of Excellence in Threats and Vulnerabilities for the Future Internet, consisting of 8 partners and more than 70 associated partners funded in part by the European Commission, (ii) as the coordinator of the NoAH project which installed one of the largest academic Network of honeypots in Europe, and (iii) as the founding member of SENTER: The European Network of the National Centers of Excellence in Cybercrime Research Training and Education. Prof. Markatos has co-authored more than 150 publications in top conferences and journals including ACM SOSP, ACM SIGMETRICS, IEEE HPCA, ACM/IEEE ToN, IEEE JSAC, USENIX Security, INFOCOM, etc. According to Google Scholar his work has received more than to 8,000 citations with an h-index of 47.

Elpida Vamvaka

Co-founder and President of Homo Digitalis

Elpida Vamvaka is a lawyer specializing in digital rights and especially in the disclosure of personal data to public authorities, on issues of new technologies and privacy. She is a co-founding member and President of Homo Digitalis, the first and only not-for-profit company in Greece with the aim of protecting and promoting digital rights since 2018. The central goals of Homo Digitalis include raising public awareness about digital rights, facilitating the exercise of digital rights, submitting interventions for the proper implementation of legislation and participating in the law-making process. Elpida has participated in significant research projects in collaboration with the Foundation for Research and Technology (Forth) to assess the compliance of applications with the GDPR, and with the Media Pluralism Monitor of the European University Institute in Florence. She has worked as a legal advisor to the “Athena” Research Center in Information Technology, Communications and Knowledge.

Clementina Barbaro

Head, Youth Policy Division - Secretary to the Joint Council on Youth and the European Steering Committee for Youth Council of Europe

Clementina Barbaro is a lawyer and a CoE staff member since 2002. Initially, she worked on human rights issues (in particular as regards supporting the implementation of the ECHR at the national level) and issues related to the good functioning of judicial systems. In 2016, as Secretary of the CEPEJ Working Group on the Quality of Justice, was closely involved in the elaboration of the CEPEJ Ethical Charter on the use of AI in judicial systems and was subsequently appointed Co-Secretary of the CAHAI, the Ad hoc committee on artificial intelligence of the Council of Europe. She is currently working on youth policy development and assistance.

Janne Mifsud Bonnici

Professor in European Technology Law and Human Rights, Faculty of Law University of Groningen University and University of Malta

Jeanne Pia Mifsud Bonnici is Professor in European Technology Law and Human Rights, Faculty of Law University of Groningen University and University of Malta She studied law at the University of Malta where she received a Doctor of Laws degree (LLD) with a thesis on data protection issues in the medical sector. As a Chevening Scholar, she read for a Masters in Cognitive Science at the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom. After some years of teaching and legal practice, she read for a Doctor of Law degree at the University of Groningen researching on self-regulation in cyberspace. In 2009 she was awarded a Rosalind Franklin Fellowship at the University of Groningen and in 2015 she was appointed full Professor at the same university where she holds the Chair in European Technology Law and Human Rights at the Department of European and Economic Law, Faculty of Law. She is Visiting Lecturer in Media, Communications & Technology Law at the University of Malta, Faculty of Law. Since 2010, she co-leads the STeP Research Group, which she also co-founded. Her current research focuses on four main themes: Privacy and security, Data protection and health related data, Internet governance, and Converging technologies and convergence of law.

Maria Bottis

Professor of Information Law, School of Information Science and Informatics Ionian University

Maria Bottis is an Attorney-at-law and a Professor, School of Information Science and Informatics, DALMS, Ionian University, and Director of the International Society for Ethics and Information Technology (2021-2026). She is an Honors graduate of Athens Law School and holds a LL.M degree (Cambridge Law School UK), a LL.M degree from Yale Law School, and a PhD on medical information law and ethics from the University of Athens. She was accepted by Harvard Law School for LLM studies in 1993. She was appointed Faculty Fellow at Harvard University, Center for Ethics and the Professions (2000-2001). She has been awarded scholarships from NATO, the Onassis Foundation, IKY (the Greek National Scholarships Foundation), the Rotary Club of Athens, the Yale Law School, Harvard and Clare Hall, Cambridge. Maria Bottis has served as an elected Co-Director of the International Society for Ethics and Technology (2014-2018) and was appointed as Director of INSEIT. She is the founder of the International Conference on Information Law and Ethics (ICIL) series, from 2008 onwards, of the Athens Data Protection Colloquium (with Dr. Fereniki Panagopoulou-Koutnatzi) and of the Medical Responsibility and Ethics (MRBE) conference series (with Dr. Fereniki Panagopoulou-Koutnatzi). She is the Head of the Ionian University Research Team 'Information: History, Regulation and Culture'. Ιn 2015, Maria Bottis was appointed member of the IEEE Global Initiative Personal Data Committee and in 2016 was elected Director of the Graduate Program of DALMS, Ionian University. Ιn 2016, she was appointed member of the UNESCO executive committee on bioethics of Greece and member of the Scientific Committee of Digital Services of the National Library of Greece and in 2018 as a Member of the Scientific Board of the Institute for Privacy Law, Data Protection and Technology (IPL) of the European Public Law Organization (EPLO). In 2021, Maria Bottis was appointed member of the Expert Group on Information Law of EBLIDA (EGIL-EBLIDA) and elected Director of the Laboratory for the documentation of cultural and historical heritage of DALMS. In June 2021 she was appointed Vice-President of the General Council for Libraries, a governmental body under the Ministry of Education in Greece responsible for the supervision of all Greek libraries, for a term of three years.

Maria Samantha Esposito

Assistant professor of Private Law, Department of Management and Production Engineering Politecnico di Torino

Maria Samantha Esposito is Assistant Professor of Private Law at Polytechnic University of Turin. She holds a Ph.D. on Civil Law from University of Bologna and a 2nd level Specialising Master degree from LUISS University. She participated as a research team member in the H2020 research project 'VIRT-EU' (Values and ethics in Innovation for Responsible Technology in Europe) and collaborated in the H2020 research project 'CyberSec4Europe'. Her current research interests relate to personal information and personal data management, with a focus on their legal and social dynamics. She also deals with the impact of new technologies on tort liability and product liability. Her publications cover data protection and fundamental rights, technology related liability, and contract law.

Leyla Keser Berber

Associate professor of Law Information Technology Law Research Center, Istanbul Bilgi University

Leyla Keser Berber is a lecturer and work on IT Law since 1998 at Istanbul Bilgi University. In 2004 she established IT Law Research Center and started to work with relevant governmental institutions on digital transformation, e-government and information society projects. She is established IT Law Institute at Bilgi University in 2010. She has authored books, articles and reports on different areas of IT Law such as computer forensics, e-signature, certified e-mail, digital identity, trust service provider, e-money, online payment services, e-government, e-commerce, multistakeholder internet governance, biometric methods, e-invoice, DRM (digital rights management), e-health records, Digital Company, online behavioral advertising, cyber security, child privacy and online child sexual abuse&exploitation, open banking, AI, blockchain. She represents the Institute at the Network of Centers, which is an global academic initiative under the roof of the Berkman Klein Center at Harvard University. She is former fellow of the Berkman Klein Center for the 2015 Cohort. She is the Representative of Turkey at the Council of Europe Committee on AI (CAI) and Steering Committee Member at the UNIDROIT on Digital Assets. She is a member at the CEN-CENELEC WS Age Appopriate Digital Services Framework.

Massimo Marelli

Head of Data Protection Office and Data Protection Officer International Committee of the Red Cross

Massimo Marelli is the Head of the Data Protection Office at the ICRC. Massimo is a member of the Advisory Board and a Fellow of the European Centre on Privacy and Cybersecurity at the University of Maastricht, and the co-editor of the DigitHarium, a global forum to discuss and debate digital transformation within the humanitarian sector, with a focus on humanitarian protection, policy, ethics and action. He is also a member of the Brussels Privacy Hub Advisory Board, and he co-led the Data Protection in Humanitarian Action Working Series, which resulted in the publication of the Handbook on Data Protection in Humanitarian Action. Prior to his current role, Massimo held several positions as a Delegate in the field and legal adviser at the ICRC. Prior to joining the ICRC, Massimo worked as lawyer at the UK Office of Fair Trading, Referendaire at the EU General Court, and as a solicitor in private practice.

Olivier Matter

Head of International Cooperation European Data Protection Supervisor

Yanick Meneceur

Head of Central Division, Directorate General Human Rights and Rule of Law Council of Europe

Yannick Meneceur is a French magistrate on leave, Head of Division at the Council of Europe. He is also an associate lecturer at the Faculty of Law of Strasbourg, and a researcher at the Centre de Recherche Léon Duguit (CRLD) and the Centre d'Etudes et de Recherche en Droit de l'Immatériel (CERDI) at the University Paris-Sud. He is the author of the book "L'intelligence artificielle en procès" (Artificial Intelligence on Trial), for which he received the Cercle Montesquieu 2021 Prize. At the Council of Europe, he has held positions related to the regulation of artificial intelligence and the evaluation of judicial systems. As a magistrate, he has held positions in the fight against cybercrime and in the management of IT projects within the Ministry of Justice.

Lilian Mitrou

Professor of Privacy and Information Law University of the Aegean President of the Institute for Privacy Law, Data Protection and Technology (IPL) European Public Law Organization

Lilian Mitrou is Professor at the University of the Aegean-Greece (Department of Information and Communication Systems Engineering) and Visiting Professor at the Athens University of Economics and Business and the University of Piraeus (Postgraduate Studies Programs). She is President of the Institute for Privacy Law, Data Protection and Technology (IPL), established by the European Public Law Organization. L. Mitrou studied law in Athens and holds a PhD in Data Protection (University of Frankfurt-Germany). She was Member of the Hellenic Data Protection Authority (1999-2003) and of many Committees working on law proposals in the fields of privacy and data protection, communications law, e-government etc. During the Greek Presidency of the Council of EU (2014) she has served as Chair of DAPIX (Working Group on Information Exchange and Data Protection). Since November 2016 she is member of the Greek National Council for Radio and Television (NCRTV). Her professional experience includes senior consulting and researcher positions in a number of private and public institutions and projects on national and international level. L. Mitrou published books, chapters in books and many journal and conference papers (in English, German and Greek).

Vagelis Papakonstantinou

Professor of Personal Data Protection Law, Faculty of Law & Criminology Vrije Universiteit Brussel Research fellow, Institute for Privacy Law, Data Protection and Technology (IPL), European Public Law Organization

Vagelis Papakonstantinou is a Professor on Personal Data Protection Law at the Faculty of Law & Criminology of the Free University of Brussels (VUB, Vrije Universiteit Brussel), focusing also on Cybersecurity, Intellectual Property, and the broader topic of technology regulation. He works though the Cyber and Data Security Lab (CDSL), where he is its scientific coordinator, as well as through VUB’s Research Group on Law Science Technology & Society (LSTS) and the Brussels Privacy Hub. Since the early 2000s Vagelis Papakonstantinou has participated in the law-making committees for the release of all major EU, Council of Europe and Greek laws and regulations on personal data protection (the Council Framework Decision 2008/977/JHA, the EU PNR Directive, Convention 108+, the GDPR, the Police and Criminal Justice Data Protection Directive, Greek law n.4624/2019). Since 2018, when the GDPR became applicable, he has participated either as a partner through VUB’s CDSL or as an external expert in EU-funded research projects of a total worth of more than 60m Euros. In addition to the above, through MPlegal, a niche technology law firm, Vagelis Papakonstantinou practices business law with a particular emphasis on technology start-ups and mid-size companies. To match these interests, he also teaches “Entrepreneurship” at the Executive MBA Programme of the University of the Aegean. For the period 2016-2021 he has been a member (alternate) of the Hellenic Data Protection Authority. Since 2021 he has been the Data Protection Officer (DPO) of Greece's centre-right (governing) political party Nea Demokratia - ND. In the past, he has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Hellenic Copyright Organisation (for two terms).

Miquel Peguera Poch

Associate professor of Law, Faculty of Law and Political Science Universitat Oberta de Catalunya

Miquel Peguera is Associate Professor of Law at Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) (Barcelona, Spain). He holds a PhD in Law from the University of Barcelona (2006), with a doctoral dissertation on the liability of internet intermediary service providers. Deputy dean of research at the School of Law and Political Science (UOC). Affiliate Scholar at Stanford Center for Internet & Society since 2014. Co-editor of the Journal of Intellectual Property, Information Technology and E-Commerce Law (jipitec.eu) since 2011. He was Visiting Scholar at Columbia University School of Law (2007-08). His research focuses on the legal aspects of the internet, particularly regarding copyright, trademarks, privacy, and intermediary liability, as well as artificial intelligence. He has published extensively on those fields from both an EU and US perspective. He is a consultant with the Spanish law firm Cuatrecasas.

Tatiana Synodinou

Professor of Private and Commercial Law University of Cyprus

Tatiana Eleni Synodinou is a Professor of Private and Commercial law at the Law Department of the University of Cyprus. She teaches Copyright law, EU Intellectual property law, Company law and Property law. She is member of the International Advisory Board of the University College Dublin (UCD) Centre for Common Law in Europe Centre for Common Law in Europe and Member of the Research Center Cerdi (Centre d’Études et de Recherche en Droit de l’Immatériel) of the University Paris- Saclay. She has been a National expert for many projects and EU studies. She is a case law reporter for “Kluwer Law International” to the legal database «Kluwer EU IP Cases» and a contributor to Kluwer Copyright Blog. She is founding member and President of the Union of Copyright Law of Cyprus (EDPI), that is the Cypriot affiliate of International Literary and Artistic Association (ALAI). She is member of the European Copyright Society (ECS). She is the author of numerous books, journal articles and chapters in edited books in copyright law, Internet law, media law, property law.