Is there a future for the Data Protection Officer?
A conversation with Aurélie Pols
Pols has bridged the worlds of technology, law, and ethics for over 20 years, and believes we're at a turning point where collaboration, not compliance checklists, will define how organizations protect people's data.
The Future of Privacy
The Future of Privacy is the theme of a webinar series developed in collaboration with Eyd and Personverndagene. We will air approximately one webinar per month until Personverndagene kicks off in mid-September 2026.
Agenda for this webinar
The GDPR created the Data Protection Role role to give privacy a seat at the table. But here's the uncomfortable truth: one person cannot centralize all the knowledge needed to actually protect data. The engineer knows how data flows. Legal knows what the parties promised in the contracts. Security is in charge of patching vulnerabilities. Product supports business objectives. So where does that leave the DPO, and where should privacy accountability live?
In this conversation we will explore:
- In what way privacy is a team effort.
- How deep should you go in the accountability documentation rabbit hole.
- The concept of being a "translator" between legal, security and engineering, and product strategy to support business goals
- Will privacy become everyone's job?
Guest
Aurélie Pols
Privacy Engineer, DPO & Ethics Expert
Pols has advised the European Commission, the EDPB, and the Observatory for The Online Platform Economy. She taught in Maastricht University's LLM and DPO programs as a board member of the European Centre for Privacy and Cybersecurity. Today she is part of privacy strategy at Amadeus, the world's largest travel technology company.
Host
Vibeke Specht
Co-Founder of Peak Privacy
CIPP/E certified privacy professional and author of "From GDPR Confusion to Privacy First Marketing".