EDPS to set up a European Ethics Advisory Board

European Data Protection Supervisor, Giovanni Buttarelli, is today calling for broader discussion, both in the European Union and globally, on how to ensure the integrity of our values while embracing the benefits of new technologies. To ensure this exchange of ideas, he plans to set up an EDPS Ethics Advisory Board. The board would conduct multidisciplinary analysis and provide recommendations and inform societal debate on how a free, democratic society should meet technological challenges, the EDPS says.

The board will consist of ‘a select group of distinguished persons from the fields of ethics and philosophy, sociology, psychology, technology and economics, supported as required by additional experts with knowledge and expertise in areas like health, transport and energy, social interaction and media, economy and finance, governance and democracy and security and policing’.

The EDPS stresses accountability over mechanical compliance, and the wider ethical implications of how personal data is used, whilst providing maximum transparency. He also emphasises the need for closer dialogue between regulators from different sectors.