In honor of this year’s European Data Protection Day in January, Hunton & Williams hosted an event featuring insights from the UK’s past and present data protection commissioners, Eric Howe, Elizabeth France, Richard Thomas and Christopher Graham.

The commissioners “discussed the key issues they each faced when in office, the impact of the changes since the first legislation in 1984 and the privacy challenges of the future,” Hunton & Williams noted in its announcement of the event, and “were joined by Justice Minister Lord McNally who set out the government’s view on the importance of data protection in the digital age.”

The evening launched the publication of the fourth edition of the textbook Data Protection Law and Practice, written by Hunton & Williams Senior Attorney Rosemary Jay, who noted, “We tend to talk glibly about the ever-increasing spread of personal information and the need to deal with it properly but to hear those who have wrestled with these issues over nearly 30 years really brings home how important this is. The regulatory landscape continues to change with the current proposals from the European Commission. It is not yet clear what the future will hold, but organisations need to be alert to the challenges we are facing.”

--IAPP Staff