Table of contents
Intro: in the news .....................................................................................................................4
Part I: technology, economy & society ......................................................................................5
Chapter I: the importance of interdisciplinarity .....................................................................5
Chapter II: regulating technology ........................................................................................ 10
Part II: interaction between technology & law.......................................................................... 11
Chapter I: human rights...................................................................................................... 11
Section 1: freedom of expression and digital technologies ............................................... 12
Introduction .............................................................................................................. 12
Legal framework ........................................................................................................ 13
Section 2: the liability of online intermediaries................................................................. 19
Introduction .............................................................................................................. 19
Legal framework ........................................................................................................ 19
Section 3: digital discrimination ...................................................................................... 22
Introduction .............................................................................................................. 22
Legal framework ........................................................................................................ 23
Section 4: children’s rights in the digital environment ....................................................... 26
Introduction .............................................................................................................. 26
Legal framework ........................................................................................................ 26
Chapter II: data protection ................................................................................................. 30
Section 1: the right to privacy and data protection in a digital era ...................................... 30
Introduction .............................................................................................................. 30
Legal framework ........................................................................................................ 31
Section 2: focus on GDPR ............................................................................................... 36
Introduction .............................................................................................................. 36
Legal framework ........................................................................................................ 36
Section 3: personal data and non-personal data .............................................................. 38
Section 4: data protection actors .................................................................................... 42
Section 5: data protection principles ............................................................................... 46
Section 6: data protection rights ..................................................................................... 54
Data subject rights .................................................................................................... 54
Data subject requests ............................................................................................... 63
Templates.................................................................................................................. 64
Section 7: data protection compliance ............................................................................ 65
Legal framework ........................................................................................................ 65
1
, Accountability ........................................................................................................... 65
Privacy notice (first compliance action) .................................................................... 66
Balancing test (second compliance action) .............................................................. 68
Data breach notification (third compliance action) ................................................... 69
Data protection officer (fourth compliance action) ................................................... 72
Data processing agreement (fifth compliance action) .............................................. 74
Records of processing activities (sixth compliance action) ...................................... 76
Data protection impact assessment (seventh compliance action) ........................... 79
Transfer Impact Assessment (eighth compliance action) ......................................... 81
Spotlight: AI & Data protection .................................................................................. 84
Section 8: data protection enforcement .......................................................................... 85
Introduction .............................................................................................................. 85
Legal framework ........................................................................................................ 86
Enforcement: Belgium............................................................................................... 86
Enforcement: European Union .................................................................................. 90
Chapter III: e-commerce and consumer protection ............................................................. 92
Section 1: cookies and similar tracking technologies ....................................................... 92
Introduction .............................................................................................................. 92
Legal framework ........................................................................................................ 93
Cookies and similar tracking technologies ............................................................... 93
Practical implementation.......................................................................................... 95
Valid consent............................................................................................................. 96
A ‘cookieless’ future? ................................................................................................ 98
Section 2: the regulation of electronic commerce and digital services .............................. 98
The Digital Markets Act.............................................................................................. 99
The Digital Services Act ........................................................................................... 101
Section 3: consumer protection in the online environment ............................................. 121
Introduction ............................................................................................................ 121
Spotlight: dark patterns .......................................................................................... 121
Section 4: online advertising ......................................................................................... 130
Direct marketing & targeted advertising .................................................................. 130
Spotlight: influencer marketing............................................................................... 136
Section 5: cryptocurrencies .......................................................................................... 138
Introduction ............................................................................................................ 138
Regulation of the EU ................................................................................................ 141
Chapter IV: cybercrime and cybersecurity ......................................................................... 143
2
, Section 1: cybercrime ................................................................................................... 143
Substantive aspects ................................................................................................ 143
Procedural aspects ................................................................................................. 151
Section 2: cybersecurity ............................................................................................... 154
Chapter V: the regulation of Artificial Intelligence .............................................................. 158
Section 1: legal challenges ........................................................................................... 158
Section 2: legal frameworks .......................................................................................... 161
Lecture: Artificial Intelligence .............................................................................................. 181
Chapter 1: what is machine learning? And AI? ................................................................... 181
Section 1: machine learning – “pattern recognition”....................................................... 181
Section 2: agents that take actions (with a goal) ............................................................. 185
Chapter 2: AI in the wild ................................................................................................... 186
Chapter 3: large language models .................................................................................... 188
Chapter 4: what are the dangers? ..................................................................................... 189
Lecture: tech at law firms = legal tech .................................................................................. 191
Chapter 1: intro................................................................................................................ 191
Chapter 2: tech in our daily practices ................................................................................ 191
Chapter 3: innovative technologies ................................................................................... 193
Chapter 4: cybersecurity and data protection.................................................................... 200
Chapter 5: the road ahead ................................................................................................ 200
3
, Summary Law & Technology
Intro: in the news
• NEGATIVE:
- “Dutch DPA imposes a fine on Clearview because of illegal data collection for facial
recognition”:
o clear view = a facial recognition technology: American company build this
database with a lot of images from the internet → other organizations can
use this database to find out who people are based on the images →
discussion about this database = database is illegal → it violates after all the
rights of each one of us
- “Australia plans social media minimum age limit, angering youth digital
advocates”:
o Australian government want to ban children from social media (because of
the amount of time people spent on social media, their mental health…)
o There is also a discussion in France about this
- “Meta to put under-18 Instagram users into new ‘teen accounts’”:
o Meta has announced that they would make new settings online for
teenagers:
▪ Accounts would be more private
▪ Parents have control over the accounts
▪ …
➔ All this is called a teen account
- “Commission opens formal proceedings against Meta under the Digital Services
Act related to the protection of minors on Facebook and Instagram”
o Commission can open investigations to see if Meta protects the minors
enough: based on DSA, which imposes obligations on platforms to make
sure that their services are safe, they can now open investigations → if they
find a violation, fines can be imposed
- “How did Donald Trump end up posting Taylor Swift deepfakes?”
o Taylor Swift said she supports Kamala: one of the reasons = Trump had
reposted AI generated images that make it seem that Taylor Swift supports
Trump → this is misleading content
➔ Disinformation researchers have long warned that generative AI has the
ability to lower the bar for creating misleading content and threaten
information around elections
- “Musk’s false X posts on US election viewed 1.2 billion times, says watchdog” :
o Elon Musk loves absolute freedom of speech
o Musk posted something abt the elections that is not true: got billions of views
→ this fake news can have a huge impact on the society
- “Telegram’s Pavel Durov announces new crackdown on illegal content after arrest”:
o Owner of Telegram (= Pavel Durov): got arrested when he got off the plane →
reason = he takes too little action against illegal content that circulates on
Telegram (f.ex. messages that are sexually explicit)
- “Online fraud: 50% rise in scamming reports in first half of 2024”
4
Intro: in the news .....................................................................................................................4
Part I: technology, economy & society ......................................................................................5
Chapter I: the importance of interdisciplinarity .....................................................................5
Chapter II: regulating technology ........................................................................................ 10
Part II: interaction between technology & law.......................................................................... 11
Chapter I: human rights...................................................................................................... 11
Section 1: freedom of expression and digital technologies ............................................... 12
Introduction .............................................................................................................. 12
Legal framework ........................................................................................................ 13
Section 2: the liability of online intermediaries................................................................. 19
Introduction .............................................................................................................. 19
Legal framework ........................................................................................................ 19
Section 3: digital discrimination ...................................................................................... 22
Introduction .............................................................................................................. 22
Legal framework ........................................................................................................ 23
Section 4: children’s rights in the digital environment ....................................................... 26
Introduction .............................................................................................................. 26
Legal framework ........................................................................................................ 26
Chapter II: data protection ................................................................................................. 30
Section 1: the right to privacy and data protection in a digital era ...................................... 30
Introduction .............................................................................................................. 30
Legal framework ........................................................................................................ 31
Section 2: focus on GDPR ............................................................................................... 36
Introduction .............................................................................................................. 36
Legal framework ........................................................................................................ 36
Section 3: personal data and non-personal data .............................................................. 38
Section 4: data protection actors .................................................................................... 42
Section 5: data protection principles ............................................................................... 46
Section 6: data protection rights ..................................................................................... 54
Data subject rights .................................................................................................... 54
Data subject requests ............................................................................................... 63
Templates.................................................................................................................. 64
Section 7: data protection compliance ............................................................................ 65
Legal framework ........................................................................................................ 65
1
, Accountability ........................................................................................................... 65
Privacy notice (first compliance action) .................................................................... 66
Balancing test (second compliance action) .............................................................. 68
Data breach notification (third compliance action) ................................................... 69
Data protection officer (fourth compliance action) ................................................... 72
Data processing agreement (fifth compliance action) .............................................. 74
Records of processing activities (sixth compliance action) ...................................... 76
Data protection impact assessment (seventh compliance action) ........................... 79
Transfer Impact Assessment (eighth compliance action) ......................................... 81
Spotlight: AI & Data protection .................................................................................. 84
Section 8: data protection enforcement .......................................................................... 85
Introduction .............................................................................................................. 85
Legal framework ........................................................................................................ 86
Enforcement: Belgium............................................................................................... 86
Enforcement: European Union .................................................................................. 90
Chapter III: e-commerce and consumer protection ............................................................. 92
Section 1: cookies and similar tracking technologies ....................................................... 92
Introduction .............................................................................................................. 92
Legal framework ........................................................................................................ 93
Cookies and similar tracking technologies ............................................................... 93
Practical implementation.......................................................................................... 95
Valid consent............................................................................................................. 96
A ‘cookieless’ future? ................................................................................................ 98
Section 2: the regulation of electronic commerce and digital services .............................. 98
The Digital Markets Act.............................................................................................. 99
The Digital Services Act ........................................................................................... 101
Section 3: consumer protection in the online environment ............................................. 121
Introduction ............................................................................................................ 121
Spotlight: dark patterns .......................................................................................... 121
Section 4: online advertising ......................................................................................... 130
Direct marketing & targeted advertising .................................................................. 130
Spotlight: influencer marketing............................................................................... 136
Section 5: cryptocurrencies .......................................................................................... 138
Introduction ............................................................................................................ 138
Regulation of the EU ................................................................................................ 141
Chapter IV: cybercrime and cybersecurity ......................................................................... 143
2
, Section 1: cybercrime ................................................................................................... 143
Substantive aspects ................................................................................................ 143
Procedural aspects ................................................................................................. 151
Section 2: cybersecurity ............................................................................................... 154
Chapter V: the regulation of Artificial Intelligence .............................................................. 158
Section 1: legal challenges ........................................................................................... 158
Section 2: legal frameworks .......................................................................................... 161
Lecture: Artificial Intelligence .............................................................................................. 181
Chapter 1: what is machine learning? And AI? ................................................................... 181
Section 1: machine learning – “pattern recognition”....................................................... 181
Section 2: agents that take actions (with a goal) ............................................................. 185
Chapter 2: AI in the wild ................................................................................................... 186
Chapter 3: large language models .................................................................................... 188
Chapter 4: what are the dangers? ..................................................................................... 189
Lecture: tech at law firms = legal tech .................................................................................. 191
Chapter 1: intro................................................................................................................ 191
Chapter 2: tech in our daily practices ................................................................................ 191
Chapter 3: innovative technologies ................................................................................... 193
Chapter 4: cybersecurity and data protection.................................................................... 200
Chapter 5: the road ahead ................................................................................................ 200
3
, Summary Law & Technology
Intro: in the news
• NEGATIVE:
- “Dutch DPA imposes a fine on Clearview because of illegal data collection for facial
recognition”:
o clear view = a facial recognition technology: American company build this
database with a lot of images from the internet → other organizations can
use this database to find out who people are based on the images →
discussion about this database = database is illegal → it violates after all the
rights of each one of us
- “Australia plans social media minimum age limit, angering youth digital
advocates”:
o Australian government want to ban children from social media (because of
the amount of time people spent on social media, their mental health…)
o There is also a discussion in France about this
- “Meta to put under-18 Instagram users into new ‘teen accounts’”:
o Meta has announced that they would make new settings online for
teenagers:
▪ Accounts would be more private
▪ Parents have control over the accounts
▪ …
➔ All this is called a teen account
- “Commission opens formal proceedings against Meta under the Digital Services
Act related to the protection of minors on Facebook and Instagram”
o Commission can open investigations to see if Meta protects the minors
enough: based on DSA, which imposes obligations on platforms to make
sure that their services are safe, they can now open investigations → if they
find a violation, fines can be imposed
- “How did Donald Trump end up posting Taylor Swift deepfakes?”
o Taylor Swift said she supports Kamala: one of the reasons = Trump had
reposted AI generated images that make it seem that Taylor Swift supports
Trump → this is misleading content
➔ Disinformation researchers have long warned that generative AI has the
ability to lower the bar for creating misleading content and threaten
information around elections
- “Musk’s false X posts on US election viewed 1.2 billion times, says watchdog” :
o Elon Musk loves absolute freedom of speech
o Musk posted something abt the elections that is not true: got billions of views
→ this fake news can have a huge impact on the society
- “Telegram’s Pavel Durov announces new crackdown on illegal content after arrest”:
o Owner of Telegram (= Pavel Durov): got arrested when he got off the plane →
reason = he takes too little action against illegal content that circulates on
Telegram (f.ex. messages that are sexually explicit)
- “Online fraud: 50% rise in scamming reports in first half of 2024”
4
