CPDP LatAm is the Latin American edition of the Computers, Privacy and Data Protection (CPDP) conference. CPDP is a conference about privacy and data protection. It offers a forum where different voices are heard and where positions are compared debated, approached or differentiated. CPDP Latam includes the Latin American editions of CPDP, the MyData conference, and the Privacy Law Scholars Conference (PLSC).
CPDP is a non-profit platform originally founded in 2007 by research groups from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, the Université de Namur and Tilburg University. The platform was joined in the following years by the Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique and the Fraunhofer Institut für System und Innovationsforschung and has now after a decade grown into a platform carried by 20 academic centers of excellence from the EU, the US and beyond.
As a world-leading multidisciplinary conference CPDP offers the cutting edge in legal, regulatory, academic and technological development in privacy and data protection. Within an atmosphere of independence and mutual respect, CPDP gathers academics, lawyers, practitioners, policy-makers, industry and civil society from all over the world in Brussels, offering them an arena to exchange ideas and discuss the latest emerging issues and trends. This unique multidisciplinary formula has served to make CPDP one of the leading data protection and privacy conferences in Europe and around the world and is in the DNA of CPDP LatAm.
CPDP LatAm has a variety of contribution formats, which translate into Non-Profit Partners, Private Sector Partners, and Collaborators.
Partners organize panels and pay a corresponding contribution to compensate for the free admission of the panelists. There are two types of Partners: (1) “Non-Profit Partners”, a format designed for academic centers of excellence and civil society organizations that organize panels at CPDP and also engage in scientific activities, such as reviewing the call for papers; (2) “Private Sector Partners”, a format for other institutions that organize and participate in panels at CPDP LatAm and can afford to do so.
“Private Sector Partners” contribute a certain amount of money as a donation in exchange for visibility. Some sponsors get involved in organizing panels, others have only one or more panelists at the conference. There are three levels of sponsorship, based on the size of the partner.
- Small-sized partner: R$10.000 to R$15.000
- Medium-sized partner: R$25.000 to R$35.000
- Large partner: R$75.000 to R$100.000
Finally, ‘Institutional Supporters’ and ‘Media Supporters’ do not contribute financially or organise panels but provide institutional support and/or press coverage to the conference.
This note clarifies how CPDP LatAm looks at the role of funding and makes use of funding. These are the CPDP LatAm criteria regarding funding:
1. CPDP LatAm accepts sponsorship from all entities who wish to endorse the objectives of the conference, however, the organizers reserve the right to decline sponsorship offered by sponsors whose main activities are incompatible with the spirit and aims of the conference or have the effect that certain stakeholders do not want to be involved in the conference anymore.
2. Sponsorship of CPDP Latam does not give public or private institutions any influence over the entire programme of CPDP Latam. All voices deserve to be heard at CPDP LatAm but none can have any undue influence on the organization of the event. Suggestions and ideas are considered by the Programme Committee, which makes the final decisions, consulting the Multistakeholder Advisory Board. Panels that are set up by partners are identified as such in the programme. The name of individual speakers who receive sponsoring, and the identity of the sponsor, who organise panels will also be made publicly available. A quality check in terms of multidisciplinarity, originality, geographical spread and gender equality is carried out by the Programming Committee in conjunction with the Multistakeholder Advisory Board. These requirements are also communicated to panel organisers beforehand. Although the Programming Committee is open to suggestions of the partner or sponsor, the committee can add a member of the CPDP LatAm Scientific Committee or a member of the Multistakeholder Advisory Board or a person with specific expertise in the subject matter of the panel to each panel (apart from the panels organised by conference partners) either as a moderator or chair.
3. Specific donations earmarked as travel grants to facilitate the participation of stakeholders from the region are not calculated within the 15% limit but must be publicly disclosed. We strive to maximize participation and diversify voices within CPDP LatAm, and travel grants are essential to achieve this goal in a region where travel fees may represent an insurmountable barrier. All recipients of such travel grants are publicly listed in the CPDP LatAm website.
Relevant elements concerning CPDP LatAm funding
1. CPDP LatAm is a not-for-profit conference. All sponsorship goes into paying the costs of the conference and towards supporting research and sponsoring participation of the widest possible spectrum of stakeholders from the region. The CPDP LatAm (financial) administration is conducted through Fundação Getulio Vargas Law School and is accountable under Brazilian law.
2. CPDP Latam does not pay speakers a fee. Yet may cover the travel expenses of speakers who are not in a financial position to do so and request travel support.
3. To maintain the financial integrity of CPDP LatAm, it concentrates on diversification. There are three main sources of financial contributions: i) panel fees of conference and event partners, ii) participants’ fees (which remains remarkably low for civil society representatives and students), and iii) sponsorship and grants.
The role of the CPDP LatAm Board of Directors
The CPDP Latam Board of Directors oversees the Executive Team, the Scientific Committee and the Multistakeholder Advisory Board. The Board of Directors, the Scientific Committee and the Multistakeholder Advisory Board are comprised of professionals with longstanding experience in privacy and data protection initiatives, policymaking and academic discussions.
The Board of Directors is ultimately responsible for final decisions and can only act having previously consulted the Scientific Committee and the Multistakeholder Advisory Board. The Board of Directors shall always consider any concerns raised by the Scientific Committee and the Multistakeholder Advisory Board, facilitating the achievement of consensus.
Maintaining the integrity of CPDP LatAm in the future
The CPDP Latam organizers acknowledge that the legal, political and social significance of privacy and data protection requires constant vigilance and commitment to maintain CPDP Latam’s position as an accessible and meaningful platform for dialogue. The challenges that arise, as highlighted by this note, are ever-present, but the accountability mechanisms seek to secure the integrity of CPDP now and in the future. If you have any feedback, suggestions for improvement or questions on our funding policy, please contact us at contact@cpdp.lat. The received questions and feedback submissions will be added to the agenda of the next CPDP LatAm Board of Directors’ meeting.