Bojana Bellamy Selected to Participate in EU-US Privacy Bridge Initiative

LONDON — May 7, 2014 — Hunton & Williams LLP’s Centre for Information Policy Leadership president, Bojana Bellamy, has been selected to participate in the “Privacy Bridge Project,” a new transatlantic initiative that seeks to develop practical solutions to bridge the gap between European and US privacy regimes. Bellamy joins a distinguished group of approximately 20 privacy experts from the EU and US, convened by Jacob Kohnstamm, chairman of the Dutch Data Protection Authority (DPA) and former chairman of the EU Article 29 Working Party.

Although the regions share a common goal of effective privacy protection, misunderstandings and differences between transatlantic legal systems pose challenges to the free flow of information and privacy protection. The Privacy Bridge Project, which will address these challenges, is organized jointly by Daniel J. Weitzner of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology CSAIL Information Policy Project and Nico van Eijk of the Institute for Information Law of the University of Amsterdam.

The first meeting of the Privacy Bridge Project was held at the end of April 2014, in Amsterdam. The group will convene during four further meetings to prepare an initial report outlining policy and practical recommendations for enabling cross-border data flows, and promoting privacy on both sides of the Atlantic. The report will be presented at the 2015 International Conference of Privacy and Data Protection Commissioners, to be hosted by Kohnstamm in the Netherlands. Over the next 18 months, the group will prepare a consensus white paper proposing a modus vivendi between the two regions.

“Bridging existing gaps in the privacy frameworks of the European Union and the United States is vital for businesses, governments and citizens, and essential for economic prosperity. We must work from a set of common values and shared goals, and build on those commonalities rather than focus on differences,” Bellamy said. “I’m grateful to Jacob Kohnstamm for his vision and leadership on this important mission and excited by the possibilities. It will be an honor to work with such an esteemed group of privacy leaders.”

Centre Senior Policy Advisor Fred H. Cate, Distinguished Professor and C. Ben Dutton Professor of Law at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law and director of the Indiana University Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research and Center for Law, Ethics and Applied Research in Health Information, will also participate in the project in his academic capacity.