Left to Right: Prof. Noellie Brockdorff, Prof. Joe Cannataci, Commissioner David Watts, Prof. Alfred Vella, H.E. High Commissioner Jane Lambert
The University of Malta has signed a collaboration agreement with the Office of the Commissioner for Privacy and Data Protection (OCPDP) of the state of Victoria, Australia. The agreement was signed by the Rector of the University of Malta, Professor Alfred J. Vella and the Commissioner for Privacy and Data Protection for Victoria, Professor David Watts, in the presence of Her Excellency The High Commissioner for Australia, Ms Jane Lambert, the Dean of the Faculty of Media and Knowledge Sciences (MaKS), Professor Noellie Brockdorff, and Professor Joe Cannataci, Deputy Dean, MaKS.
The OCPDP is working together with the Department of Information Policy and Governance (IPG) at MaKS, headed by Professor Cannataci, in a number of matters especially issues dealing with Privacy and Cyberlaw. IPG is internationally recognised for the expertise of its staff with up to thirty years’ global experience in the field. Likewise the OCPDP is acquiring considerable experience in a number of areas of interest to IPG including big data analytics. The collaboration between OCPDP started off with cooperation at a personal level when Professor Cannataci, in his capacity as UN Special Rapporteur for the Right to Privacy (SRP), appointed Commissioner Watts as the Chair of his SRP task force on Big Data and Open Data. This led to institutional collaboration which Professor Vella encouraged be spread further beyond IPG and MaKS in a sustainable manner. Commissioner Watts responded that it is essential that regulators build more bridges with academia in order that the cross-fertilisation between practitioners and researchers leads to improved, evidence-based, policy making, compliance and enforcement.