The BPH Chronicles is a blog dedicated to timely commentary on developments in data protection, privacy, and data governance, including case law, legislation, and policy. Edited and curated by the Brussels Privacy Hub. Those interested in contributing are invited to contact the editors at BrusselsPrivacyHub(at)vub(dot)be.
On effective enforcement of Fundamental Rights Law in the Digital Age
Editorial by Prof Dr Hielke Hijmans[1] Introduction As the CJEU recently confirmed in its judgment in Commission/Hungary, the fundamental values “enshrined in Article 2 TEU are, per se, legally binding, and therefore there is an obligation, on the Member States and...
GDPR compliance, innovation and the Omnibus
Editorial by Aymeric Pontvianne Head of the Economic Team at the CNIL. On the 23 and 24 March, the Brussels Privacy Hub and HEC Paris organised an academic workshop “Towards a competitive digital EU : regulatory effectiveness in practice”, whose first day I had the...
The parabola of AI literacy and the AI Act’s trouble with “unspecified obligations”
Editorial by Gianmarco Gori Guest Professor and Postdoctoral researcher at LSTS, VUB In November 2025 the European Commission has published the proposal for a Digital Omnibus on AI (hereafter, AI Omnibus), a regulation that aims to introduce a set of “targeted...
Safeguarding or Silencing? Youth at the Crossroads of Digital Policy
Editorial by Barbara Lazarotto Managing Director of the Brussels Privacy Hub, PhD Researcher at LSTS, VUB. The debate over how to regulate youth’s online presence has been growing worldwide. Different solutions are being constantly proposed at both the international...
Why simply redefining personal data narrowly does not solve the problem of the “law of everything”
Editorial by Prof. Nadya Purtova Professor at Utrecht University School of Law A few weeks after its publication, the Digital Omnibus proposal continues sending shockwaves through the data protection community. The proposal to drastically narrow down the meaning of...
Untangling the digital laws’ knot: Lessons from the Brussels Privacy Symposium
Editorial by Dr. Gabriela Zanfir-Fortuna Vice President for Global Privacy, Future of Privacy Forum A brief history of how the Brussels Privacy Symposium, over the past years, was the bellwether for the need to make the new EU digital laws work better by themselves...
Digging deeper: Cross-disciplinary Research Approaches
Editorial by Mireille Hildebrandt Privacy and data protection cannot be taken for granted. They must be organised and embedded in technical systems that would otherwise expose our dependencies and vulnerabilities. The integration of fundamental rights protection in...
Developments on AI, Big Tech and Data Protection: How to avoid a legal battleground?
Editorial by Prof Dr Hielke Hijmans[1] The Challenges The GDPR applies since 2018 and has developed into a source of vast legal battles between data controllers and authorities, and sometimes even between data protection authorities, each of them acting within...
Privacy and Data Protection in Motion: Some Reflections on the 2025 Summer Academy for Global Privacy Law
This June, the Brussels Privacy Hub once again hosted the Summer Academy for Global Privacy Law, bringing together a special mix of participants and perspectives. Now in its latest edition, the Academy has firmly established itself as a platform for international...
Editorial: Age Checks or Digital Care? How to design with the Youth in mind?
The health of a socio-political group shows in how it treats its children —and those of others. For Stiegler, societies don’t just raise children—they pass down culture, values, and tools for thinking and caring (“penser et panser”). When that transmission breaks...