Inaugural event 17-18.3.2025
Horizon Europe Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action, Doctoral training network
https://psst-doctoralnetwork.eu/
Privacy for Smart Speech Technology (PSST)
invites you to join the inaugural event on Monday 17 and Tuesday 18th of March.
Speaker: prof. Joe Cannataci, UN Special Rapporteur, University of Malta
Title: “Conceptual contextualisation for Smart Speech Technologies: Fallacies and Facts about Privacy”
Time: Monday 17.3. 10:00 (Helsinki time), 09:00 (CET) (duration 40 min + questions)
Online: https://aalto.zoom.us/j/69909015014
Location: Hall T3, Computer Science Building, Konemiehentie 2, 02150 Espoo
Cannataci’s speech is followed by an introduction to the research area of PSST (1 hour).
Speaker: Dr. Catherine Jasserand-Breeman, KU Leuven
Title: “Smart Speech Technologies: Data Scraping for Training AI Models and the Law“
Time: Tuesday 18.3. 09:00 (Helsinki time), 08:00 (CET) (duration 40 min + questions)
Online: https://aalto.zoom.us/j/69909015014
Location: Hall T003, School of Business, Ekonominaukio 1, 02150 Espoo
Abstracts of the talks and bios of the speakers are below.
On behalf of PSST, Welcome!
Tom Bäckström
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Joe Cannataci
Title: Conceptual contextualization for Smart Speech Technologies: Fallacies and Facts about Privacy
Abstract: A number of ICT engineers regrettably make the same mistakes as a number of lawyers when it comes to subjects like privacy. This talk will address some common misconceptions and fallacies while also setting out some of the anthropological and legal evidence that should guide practitioners, including software engineers when implementing a privacy-by-design approach.
Bio
Joe Cannataci is head of the Department of Information Policy & Governance at the Faculty of Media & Knowledge Sciences of the University of Malta. He co-founded and continues as Co-director (on a part-time basis), of STeP, the Security, Technology & e-Privacy Research Group at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, where he is also Full Professor, holding the Chair of European Information Policy & Technology Law . 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.
He was decorated by the Republic of France as Officier de l’Ordre de Palmes Academiques (2002). In 2024 Cannataci was the laureate honoured by the University of Ghent with the Amnesty International Chair. Between April 2022 and July 2023 Professor Cannataci was appointed by the Council of Europe as its lead expert to guide work on the interpretation of the world’s largest and only international treaty regulating privacy and data protection, Convention 108+. This followed Cannataci’s appointment as 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.
His past roles include Vice-Chairman/Chairman of the Council of Europe’s (CoE) Commmittee 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 anfd 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. He has designed and led several EU-supported research projects, both as Principal Investigator and overall scientific co-ordinator, since 1986. Of these more than ten projects were awarded in the SEC (security) research area since 2010 and have included CONSENT, SMART, RESPECT, MAPPING, CARISMAND, SIPP, INGRESS and JP-COOPS.
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Catherine Jasserand-Breeman
Title: Smart Speech Technologies: Data Scraping for Training AI Models and the Law
Abstract: Data scraping is not a new regulatory topic. However, with the rapid development and use of generative AI tools, data scraping to train AI models is on the radar of data protection authorities in Europe. While training AI models, including GenAI models, raises many legal issues, this talk will focus on data protection issues linked to data scraping. It will give an overview of the sources of the data, address the distinction between publicly accessible and re-usable data, explain the legal nature of voice and speech data and the conditions under which they can be collected and processed, and discuss the legality of data scraping given the EU and national supervisory authorities’ guidance on the topic.
Bio:
Catherine holds a PhD in biometrics and privacy from the University of Groningen, an LL.M in IP and New Technology law from UC Berkeley (USA) and a Master’s degree from Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (France). She worked in various EU institutions as well as in the private sector. Before joining the University of Groningen for her PhD research in 2014, she was a researcher at the University of Amsterdam (IViR), where she researched intellectual property and media law. Catherine is qualified as a lawyer in France and in the United States (New York Bar).
Between 2020 and 2023, Catherine was a Marie Skłodowska-Curie postdoctoral fellow at CiTiP (KU Leuven, Belgium), where she pursued her research project on facial recognition in public spaces and the right to privacy. Since February 2024, she is part of the Faculty of Law of the University of Groningen, working as an assistant professor. She is also an affiliated research fellow at the Faculty of Law, CiTiP, KU Leuven. Her research interests lie at the intersection between AI, biometrics, and fundamental rights.
Catherine has collaborated on several EU-funded projects with computer scientists and electrical engineers on biometrics-related topics (in particular on fingerprint, face and speech recognition). She is a regular speaker at international technical conferences.