Privacy - From the Ivory Tower to the Trenches in the Parliament

Privacy is a fundamental human right, but it is also one of the more complicated rights. Not only privacy is very context-oriented and society-oriented, it is hard to define privacy without involving adversaries trying to break it. The conceived tension between ''national security'' or ''public order'' and the basic human right of privacy, impacts the adoption of Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs), and at times, hinders the ability to offer privacy to users. In this talk, we will discuss a few topics where such a conflict exists, such as biometric data, contact tracing, and COVID certificates. We will discuss the importance of incorporating privacy into our technical work, thus making a real-life impact by offering solutions that offer better privacy. We will discuss the problems in disseminating state-of-the-art scientific knowledge to the public. We will then consider the problem of discussing these issues with policy makers, as they are the ones making the call, while not necessarily understanding the impact of complicated technologies for (and on) privacy.