Looking back on the Data Protection Day 2026
About 150 people participated in Data Protection Day on June 22, 2026, either online or in person. Interest was particularly high in the morning program.
Oliver Schmid (CISO, UZH) gave an introduction to information security and pointed out that hackers—if they want to—can access a computer no matter what. Raising awareness helps, but only to a limited extent.
Melanie Röthlisberger (Open Science Services) provided a general introduction to the legal aspects of handling personal data and how personal data could be shared, despite ethical and legal restrictions.
Francesco Garassino (Central IT) presented the steps taken so far and the next steps in how the University of Zurich plans to implement secure computing (and data storage) for UZH researchers: Which services for the secure processing and storage of personal data will be offered in the future is still to be discussed and decided.
Katie Howe and Fran de Lallo from Barker Brettell LLP (UK) provided insighst into the use of AI in patents and intellectual property rights.
Fabio Molo (Center for Reproducible Science and Research Synthesis) and Christian Futter (Open Science Services & Language Repository of Switzerland [LaRS]) highlighted the importance of sharing data and how LaRS implements this technically.
The morning’s expert presentations concluded with short talks by researchers on the challenges they have encountered when dealing with personal data. The examples from the fields of neuroscience (Alejandra Hüsser), religious studies (Muriel Heisch), medicine (Miriam Olombrada Sacristan), and history (Christian Futter, Botakoz Kassymbekova) demonstrated that these challenges can be complex and highly specific, and that there is no "one-size-fits-all" solution.
In the afternoon, participants could choose between five different workshops and attend four of them in half-hour intervals. The workshop format allowed not only for in-depth discussions with experts but also the exchange of "best practices" among participants themselves.
Download Presentation and Materials
All slides and materials from the workshops that are permitted to be made publicly available
can be accessed in the Zenodo Community of the Data Protection Day:Zenodo Community DPD