Acknowledgements
This publication is the third edition of what has been, until the second edition, a joint publication I curated together with Prof. Christopher Kuner of the Brussels Privacy Hub, an academic research centre of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB; Free University of Brussels) in Brussels, Belgium.
Therefore, first and foremost I would like to thank Christopher for his key role and contribution as co-convener of the Data Protection in Humanitarian Action working series and as co-editor of the resulting first and second editions. His guidance, knowledge, expertise and mentorship over the years constitute strong foundations for the Handbook and continue to guide the spirit of this publication.
This third edition includes two new chapters which meet an important need for guidance that has clearly emerged since the second edition was published. In the first of these new chapters, Carmela Troncoso and Wouter Lueks provide guidance on how to approach data protection by design, and how to design programmes and systems in ways that integrate data protection from the outset. This chapter is a pivotal contribution that is relevant for all the technology areas discussed in Part II. In the second new chapter, Andrea Raab-Gray looks more closely at the challenges faced by humanitarian organizations using cloud-based tools vis-à-vis their capacity to keep the data they collect under their exclusive control and ensure their use for exclusively humanitarian purposes. More specifically, it provides guidance on how to analyse possible sources of “lawful” access to humanitarian data by governments through Third Party processors such as cloud service providers.
For all other pre-existing chapters, authors who primarily or significantly contributed to those chapters curated their update to ensure they are up to date with the latest trends, developments and analyses. The text of this edition is up to date as at the date of submission of the manuscript, 10 December 2022.
I would therefore also like to thank my co-authors who curated chapters in this third edition: Carmela Troncoso, Wouter Lueks, Paolo Balboni, Andrea Raab-Gray, Lina Jasmontaite-Zaniewicz, Júlia Zomignani Barboza, Vincent Graf Narbel, Alessandro Mantelero, Aaron Martin and John Warnes. It was a great privilege to work together both on this edition of the Handbook and on the many initiatives and projects that fed into it.
Like the previous editions, this one has benefited greatly from the insights provided through consultations, workshops, interviews, panels and conferences – including the DigitHarium working series that took place throughout 2021Footnote 1 – that brought together a wide multi-stakeholder group of experts from academia, data protection authorities and privacy commissioners, humanitarian practitioners, donors, civil society and the private sector. And as with the previous editions, the work in progress was peer-reviewed by the Advisory Group for this edition, with plenty of lively debates along the way. The Advisory Group for this edition comprised:
Christopher Kuner, formerly VUB
Cosimo Monda and Herke Kranenborg, European Centre on Privacy and Cybersecurity, Maastricht University
Michèle Finck, University of Tübingen
Nathaniel Raymond, Yale University
Carmela Troncoso, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)
Catherine Lennman, Swiss Data Protection Authority, Global Privacy Assembly Working Group on Privacy and International Humanitarian Aid, and International Development
Claire-Agnes Marnier, Olivier Matter and Petra Candellier, European Data Protection Supervisor
Marine Revel, French-speaking Association of Personal Data Protection Authorities
Irina Conovali and Abtin Kronold, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
Christina Vasala Kokkinaki, formerly International Organization for Migration (IOM) and currently International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
Lucie Laplante and James de France, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC)
Stuart Campo, formerly United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
Alexandrine Pirlot de Corbion and Gus Hosein, Privacy International
Mary Nunn, formerly Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and currently Global Survivors Fund
Max Lamesch and Catherine Kayser, Luxembourg Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Directorate for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs
Gilles Cerutti and Jonas Belina, Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs.
Many thanks too to Cambridge University Press, who helped bring this third edition to fruition, especially Marianne Nield, and to my colleagues Silvia Pelucchi and Chloe Jensen for their dedication and very skilful management of the Handbook project.
For many years now our work in the area of data protection in humanitarian action has thrived thanks to generous support from the Luxembourg Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, and the third edition of this Handbook is one of the concrete manifestations of this work.
I am very thankful for the continued engagement and contribution of a number of extraordinary communities which, together, continue to provide the knowledge and insights necessary to detect, anticipate and navigate new trends and dilemmas facing the humanitarian sector in digital transformation. First, the community of humanitarian practitioners: dedicated colleagues at the International Committee of the Red Cross, National Societies of the Red Cross and the Red Crescent, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, UN Agencies, and other organizations on the front line of humanitarian action. Driven by a relentless commitment to maximize the benefit of new technologies for vulnerable communities affected by humanitarian emergencies while ensuring their protection, dignity and agency, these practitioners provide the necessary field “reality check” to ensure that the guidance provided is meaningful and realistic in the extraordinary circumstances presented by humanitarian crises. Second, the community of data protection supervisory authorities and experts within the framework of the Global Privacy Assembly and the Council of Europe Consultative Committee for the Protection of Individuals with regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data Convention 108 (T-PD) provide an extremely insightful space for exchange, reflection, and development of guidance on the application of key data protection rules to new technologies and technology areas. Third, the academic community of the European Centre on Privacy and Cybersecurity at Maastricht University and the Lausanne and Zurich Polytechnics, with unparalleled cutting-edge expertise in law and computer science respectively. These partnerships provide the type of forward-thinking environment, free of constraints, that academia can offer.
Specific credits and acknowledgements relating to the previous editions are reported therein.
1 ICRC, “DigitHarium”, ICRC, 2021, www.icrc.org/en/digitharium.
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