CPDP – “My Chatbot, My Confidant?” Protecting User Privacy in Generative AI Conversations (Brussels, BE)
The Chair will host a panel entitled ‘My Chatbot, My Confidant? Protecting User Privacy in Generative AI Conversations’ on Thursday 21, May at the CPDP 2026 Conference in Brussels (Belgium). The panel will be moderated by Prof. Theodore Christakis and will focus on the protection of user data in conversations with chatbots.
Generative AI chatbots are rapidly becoming digital confidants for health worries, relationship crises, workplace dilemmas and even legal questions. Yet, unlike doctors or lawyers, these “AI listeners” offer no recognised privilege, and the intimate prompts they receive can be logged, mined for training, optimization and tomorrow advertising, accessed by employees, requested by law enforcement or pulled into discovery. This panel asks whether current data protection and procedural rules are enough when our inner lives are mediated by large language models. Bringing together a regulator, two academics, a leading Think Tank representative and a practicing lawyer, we will explore the reality behind privacy policies, the limits of GDPR, the government access risks, and the emerging calls for an “AI privilege” or privacy-by-design alternatives. How to build trust in Generative AI systems? How do we ensure talking to your chatbot never becomes a liability?
Questions to be answered
- Do existing EU data protection rules adequately protect intimate conversations with generative AI, or do we need a new legal regime?
- How can industry players realistically act as “guardians” of user privacy when their business models and technical improvements sometimes rely on accessing and training upon those very conversations?
- If a user’s chatbot history is requested in civil or criminal discovery, should courts treat these logs as standard electronic evidence or apply heightened protections?
- Is strong privacy-by-design a potential answer to such concerns?
Speakers
- Theodore Christakis, Professor of International, European and Digital Law at University Grenoble Alpes (France)
- Declan McDowell-Naylor, Group Manager for AI and Biometrics at the Information Commissioner’s Office
- Natascha Gerlach, Director for Privacy and Data Policy CIPL
- Peter Swire, J.Z. Liang Chair in the Georgia Tech School of Cybersecurity and Privacy, and Research Director of the Cross-Border Data Forum
- Yann Padova, Partner in the Brussels office of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati
Link to register for the event here.
Link to the event program here.