The George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies’ Program on Cyber Security Studies, in collaboration with the German Federal Ministry of Defense, brought together partner countries and defense organizations to share experiences about processing, sharing and safeguarding personal data within military units and national security organizations, in a workshop held in Berlin June 27-29.

This 6th Military Cross-Border Personal Data Protection Workshop focused on the practical side of data protection within the military environment by sharing national and multilateral projects containing a cross-border link and the practical impact of existing norms.

Twenty-two participants attended the workshop, representing the Ministries of Defense from Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, and Norway as well as representatives from other governmental agencies.

The first day of the workshop was opened by Dr. Susanne Schmidt-Radefeldt, Chief of Branch, Division of Law and Organization, Legal Department of the German Federal Ministry of Defense.

“It is important of follow the legally correct ways of processing, sharing, and safeguarding personal data within military units and national security organizations, especially under the current global security environment in which military and national security organizations train, exercise, and operate together in joint, alliance, treaty, and dynamic ad-hoc coalition environments,” said Schmidt-Radefeldt in her opening remarks.

The remainder of day one focused on the ways NATO entities respect the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulations.

Day two provided national, -bi- and multi-national presentations on challenges, common definitions, possible solutions and initiatives for sharing and protecting personal data within the military environment. It started off with insights into Finland’s identified data protection challenges as a new NATO member and ended with an overview of the current status of the EU - U.S. Data Privacy Framework and the Data Protection Review Court.

For the final day, the participants looked into the European Defence Agency’s activities in the field of personal data protection, tried to predict and mitigate possible challenges for personal data protection in the context of artificial intelligence and introduced a NATO Cooperative Cyber Defense Centre of Excellence book project on “The Rights to Privacy and Data Protection in Times of Armed Conflict.“

The goal of the workshop is for the participant’s nations and organizations to understand other entities’ challenges with, views on and ways forward with processing, sharing and safeguarding personal data within military units and national security organizations under the GDPR.

At the end of the event the PCSS team received the NATO Allied Command Operations Office of Legal Affairs “Serge Lazareff Prize Award” for excellence in legal services.