FPF Experts Take The Stage at the 2025 IAPP Global Privacy Summit
By FPF Communications Intern Celeste Valentino
Earlier this month, FPF participated at the IAPP’s annual Global Privacy Summit (GPS) at the Convention Center in Washington, D.C. The Summit convened top privacy professionals for a week of expert workshops, engaging panel discussions, and exciting networking opportunities on issues ranging from understanding U.S. state and global privacy governance to the future of technological innovation, policy, and professions.
FPF started out the festivities by hosting its annual Spring Social with a night full of great company, engaging discussions, and new connections. A special thank you to our sponsors FTI Consulting, Perkins Coie, Qohash, Transcend, and TrustArc!
The IAPP conference started with FPF Senior Director for U.S. Legislation Keir Lamont, who led an informative workshop, “US State Privacy Crash Course – What Is New and What Is Next” with Lothar Determann (Partner, Baker McKenzie) and David Stauss (Partner, Husch Blackwell). The workshop provided an overview of recent U.S. state privacy legislation developments and a lens into how these laws fit into the existing landscape.
The next day, FPF Senior Fellow Doug Miller hosted an insightful discussion with Jocelyn Aqua (Principal, PwC), providing guidance and tools for privacy professionals to avoid workplace burnout. Both began the discussion by arguing that because privacy professionals face different organizational and positional pressures from other business professionals, they experience varying types of burnout that require alternative remedies. The experts then detailed each kind of burnout and provided solutions for how individuals, teams, and leaders can provide support to avoid them. “Giving your team transparency about a decision gives them control, and feeling better about a decision,” Doug explained, highlighting leaders’ vital role in mitigating workplace burnout. You can find additional resources from Doug’s full presentation here.
Next, FPF Vice President for Global Privacy Gabriela Zanfir-Fortuna, moderated a compelling conversation amongst European legislators, including Brando Benifei (Member of European Parliament, co-Rapporteur of the AI Act), John Edwards (Information Commissioner, U.K. Information Commissioner’s Office), and Louisa Specht-Riemenschneider (Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information, Germany), on Cross-regulatory Cooperation Between Digital Regulators.
Their panel began by painting a detailed portrait of how the proliferation of digital regulations has created a necessity for cross-regulatory collaboration between differing authorities. Using the EU Artificial Intelligence (AI) Act as an example, the panelists argued that the success of cross-regulation hinges on cooperation and knowledge sharing between data protection agencies of different countries. “It’s important to see how the authority of the data protection authority remains relevant and at the center of regulation around AI. One interesting point in the AI Act is that in the Netherlands, there were around 20 authorities appointed as having competence to enforce and regulate to a certain extent under the AI Act; this speaks to how complex the landscape is,” examined Gabriela Zanfir-Fortuna, Vice President for Global Privacy.
The panel also dissected concrete ways regulators can work together to enable cross-regulation, including a mandatory collaboration mechanism, supervisory authorities, and a more unified approach from governments and regulators alike.
FPF CEO Jules Polonetsky served as a moderator of a timely dialogue among high-ranking leaders, including Kate Charlet (Director, Privacy, Safety, and Security; Government Affairs and Public Policy, Google), Kate Goodloe (Managing Director, Policy, BSA, The Software Alliance), and Amanda Kane Rapp (Head of Legal, U.S. Government, Palantir Technologies), covering tech in an evolving political era.
The panel highlighted recent and expected shifts in technology, cybersecurity, privacy, AI governance, and online safety within a new U.S. executive administration. Jules commenced the panel posing, “We’ve seen increasing clashes between privacy and competition, privacy and kids’ issues, etc. Has anything changed in the current environment?” The panelists agreed that, regardless of government dynamics, privacy issues remain relevant for technology companies to address to protect and foster trust in the digital ecosystem with consumers. The panel also provided a master perspective on how tech leaders approach digital governance now and in the future through promoting interoperability, model transparency, and government experimentation and implementation of IT tools and procurement.
On the second day of the conference, FPF Managing Director for Asia-Pacific (APAC) Josh Lee Kok Thong, spoke on a panel with Darren Grayson Chng, (Regional Data Protection Director, Asia Pacific, Middle East, and Africa, Electrolux), Haksoo Ko (Chairperson, Personal Information Protection Commission, Republic of Korea), and Angela Xu (Senior Privacy Counsel, APAC Head, Google) exploring the nuanced landscape of AI regulation in Asia-Pacific.
Through the panel, the discussants highlighted the differing AI regulatory approaches across the Asia-Pacific region, noting that most APAC jurisdictions have preferred not to enact hard AI laws. Instead, these regions focus on regulating elements of AI systems such as the use of personal data (Singapore), addressing risk in AI systems (Australia), promoting industry development (South Korea), fostering international cooperation, and responsible AI practices (Japan), government oversight of deployment of AI systems (India) and regulating misinformation and personal information protection (China). “The APAC region is like a huge experimental lens for AI regulation, with different jurisdictions trying out different approaches, so do pay attention to this region because it will be very influential going forward. There will be increasing diversity and regulation,” Josh noted, providing valuable insider insight about where audience members should focus their attention.
Throughout the week, FPF’s booth in the Exhibition Hall was a popular stop for IAPP GPS attendees. Policymakers, industry leaders, and privacy scholars stopped by our booth to learn more about FPF memberships, connect with FPF staff, and learn more about FPF’s ongoing issues, ranging from the future of regulating AI agents to helping schools defend against deepfakes in the classroom. Visitors to the booth stopped by to speak with FPF staff and left with a collection of infographics, membership resources, and an “I Love Privacy” sticker.
FPF hosted two roundtable discussions early in the week, with Vice President for Global Privacy, Gabriela Zanfir-Fortuna, leading conversations on “Navigating Transatlantic Affairs and the EU-US Digital Regulatory Landscape” and “India’s new Data Protection law and what to expect from its implementation phase.” FPF’s U.S. Legislation team also hosted an event at our D.C. office for members to connect with the team and each other to discuss the U.S. legislative landscape.
FPF also hosted two Privacy Executives Network breakfasts and a lunch during the Summit week featuring peer-to-peer discussions top-of-mind issues in data protection and privacy and AI Governance. We discussed the current EU privacy landscape with Commissioner for Data Protection and Chairperson of the Irish Data Protection Commission, Des Hogan, and we spoke with Colorado Attorney General Office’s First Assistant Attorney General, Technology & Privacy Protection Unit, Stevie DeGroff. These roundtable discussions allowed our members to discuss critical topics with one another in a private and dynamic meeting.
In partnership with the Mozilla Foundation, we also hosted a PETs Workshop featuring short, expert panels exploring new and emerging Privacy Enhancing Technology (PETs) applications. Technology and policy experts presented several leading PETs use cases, analyzed how PETs work with other privacy protections, and discussed how PETs may intersect with data protection rules. This workshop was the first time that several of the use cases were shared in detail with independent experts.
We hope you enjoyed this year’s IAPP Global Privacy Summit as much as we did! If you missed us at our booth, visit FPF.org for all our reports, publications, and infographics. Follow us on X, LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube, and subscribe to our newsletter for the latest.