XXth Interdisciplinary Workshop “Privacy, Data Protection & Surveillance”
The Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society kindly invites for the 20th interdisciplinary workshop “Privacy, Data Protection & Surveillance”, which will take place on December 16, 2025 from 12:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. at the Institute’s premises, Französische Straße 9, 10117 Berlin. You should understand German, but are very welcome to give your presentation in English.
XXth INTERDISCIPLINARY WORKSHOP ”PRIVACY, DATA PROTECTION & SURVEILLANCE”
16.12.2025 • 12:00 – 18:00
Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society
Französische Straße 9, 10117 Berlin
The workshop series is marking a milestone – it’s taking place for the twentieth time. And we want to celebrate it.
With this workshop, we want to offer particularly young researchers the opportunity to present and discuss current research work from the very broad and diverse research field of privacy, surveillance, and data protection in an interdisciplinary environment. We welcome article and dissertation projects, theoretical and empirical work, analyses as well as proposed solutions from all disciplines – and it may explicitly be work in progress. In addition to the discussion of open research questions, the workshop will particularly focus on the critical reflection of the participants’ own research premises, school(s) of thought, and discipline(s).
Since the first workshop in December 2015, a lot has happened: the Snowden revelations have faded from public memory, the EU General Data Protection Regulation was adopted and entered into force, the rise of generative AI systems has ushered in what might be the fourth AI summer, calls for data and technological “sovereignty” have come to dominate the debate, and every now and then, the demand for data retention re-emerges from the political mothballs.
But we don’t just want to look back — we also want to look ahead. Where do we stand in the scientific and societal engagement with the individual and collective challenges of digitalization? And where do we want to go? To what extent do the theories developed in research on privacy, surveillance, and data protection still help us to describe, explain, and shape the informatization of society and its effects? And where do they reach their limits, making it necessary to think anew and explore alternative paths — both theoretically and practically?
Participation
If you are interested in attending the event, please fill in our registration form at the bottom of this page by Monday, November 24, 2025 at the latest, indicating whether you would like to attend as a listener or as a speaker. Speakers are asked to provide a title and an extended abstract (approx. 800 words) of the presentation, which should last max. 15 minutes. You are also welcome to provide information about your disciplines, areas of interest, and research interests. Within the general topic, you are completely free to choose your subject and to set a focus for your presentation, even beyond our proposed focus.
The workshop program will be sent to all registered participants by December 8, 2025.
We are very much looking forward to your participation and contribution.
Important dates
| November 24, 2025 | Registration deadline |
| November 24, 2025 | Deadline for the submission of abstracts |
| December 1, 2025 | Notification to submitters |
| December 8, 2025 | Workshop program |
| December 16, 2025 | Workshop |
Unfortunately, we cannot reimburse travel or accommodation expenses.
If you have any questions, please contact: joerg.pohle@hiig.de
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