J.A. (Joseph / a.k.a. Joe) Cannataci, Prof

Joe Cannataci co-founded and continues as Co-director (on a part-time basis), of STeP, the Security, Technology & e-Privacy Research Group at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, where he is Full Professor, holding the Chair of European Information Policy & Technology Law .  A Fellow of the British Computer Society (FBCS) and UK Chartered Information Technology Professional (CITP), his law background meets his techie side as a Senior Fellow and Associate Researcher at the CNAM Security-Defense-Intelligence Department in Paris, France as well as the Centre for Health, Law and Emerging Technologies at the University of Oxford.

His past roles include Vice-Chairman/Chairman of the Council of Europe’s (CoE) Commmittee of Experts on Data Protection (1992-1998), Working Parties on: Data Protection and New technologies (1995-2000);  Data Protection & Insurance (1994-1998); CoE Rapporteur on Data Protection and Police (1993; 2010; 2012); CoE Expert Consultant on Data Protection anfd Cybercrime (2012-2014); UNESCO Expert Consultant on Privacy & Transparency on the Internet (2015);  Scientific Co-ordinator of multiple EU FP7 & H2020 research projects focussing on privacy. He has designed and led several EU-supported research projects, both as Principal Investigator and overall scientific co-ordinator, since 1986. Of these more than ten projects were awarded in the SEC (security) research area since 2010 and have included CONSENT, SMART, RESPECT, MAPPING, CARISMAND, SIPP, INGRESS and JP-COOPS. He was decorated by the Republic of France as Officier de l'Ordre de Palmes Academiques (2002 see citation below). In 2024 Cannataci was the laureate honoured by the University of Ghent with the Amnesty International Chair.

The International Intelligence Oversight Forum (IIOF) is the brain-child of Professor Joe Cannataci who has acted as the convenor for IIOF annual editions in Bucharest (2016), Brussels (2017), Valletta (2018) and London (2019), taking an enforced break because of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021. The latest editions (Strasbourg 2022)  and Washington (2023) have continued to grow in scope and number of participants, bringing together oversight authorities, intelligence services and law enforcement agencies. Between April 2022 and July 2023 Professor Cannataci was appointed by the Council of Europe as its lead expert to guide work on the interpretation of the world’s largest and only international treaty regulating privacy and data protection, Convention 108+.  This followed Cannataci’s appointment as the UN’s first-ever Special Rapporteur on the Right to Privacy from which role he stepped down in August 2021 after having served the maximum of two successive three year-terms in the post. During the six years 2015-2021, Prof Cannataci carried out several country visits on behalf of the UN inspecting amongst others the use of personal data and surveillance by the police and intelligence services of several countries including the USA, the UK, France, Germany, Argentina and South Korea. He also presented two reports on COVID and Privacy, one each to the UN Human Rights Council and the UN General Assembly.

 Cannataci’s latest books include The Individual and Privacy (Routledge UK March 2015), Privacy, Free Expression & Transparency (UNESCO co-editor 2016-2017) and Handling and Exchanging Electronic Evidence across Europe (co-ed. Springer 2018),  “Essential Codes – International & European Data Protection Law” Gert Vermeulen & Willem Debeuckelaere (eds.) co-edited by: Joe Cannataci, Jean-Philippe Walter, Sophie Kwasny, Giovanni Buttarelli, Wojciech Wiewiórowski, Bruno Gencarelli, Mario Oetheimer  (Larcier, 2018); Changing Communities, Changing Policing, Jeanne-Pia Mifsud Bonnici & Joseph A. Cannataci (eds)., (NWV, Austria, 2018). Legal Challenges of Big Data, Joe Cannataci, Valeria Falce & Oreste Pollicino (eds.)  (Edward Elgar UK 2020). He is also the author of the chapter on Private and family life in the Elgar Encylopedia of Human Rights (September 2022) and A National Security Perspective on Information Leaks, Chapter co-authored with Aitana Radu in Routledge Handbook of Disinformation and National Security (Nov 2023).

Joe Cannataci studied law at the University of Malta and the University of Oslo. He later qualified in the UK as a Chartered Information Technology Professional and also holds Chartered Fellowship of the British Computer Society. He received a Doctor of Laws degree (LLD) from the University of Malta in 1986 with a thesis on privacy and data protection law published by the Norwegian University Press in 1987. Joe was T54 Project Director at the Norwegian Research Center for Computers and Law during 1986-1987 before he joined the Department of Public Law at the Faculty of Law of the University of Malta, where in 1988 he established the Law & IT Research Unit (LITRU). In 2006 he was appointed Professor of Law at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN) in the United Kingdom. Between 2006 and 2007 he was Head of Lancashire Law School and from 2007-to 2011 he was Director of the Centre for Law, Information & Converging Technologies at UCLAN. In 2011 he was appointed Head of the Department of Information Policy & Governance http://www.um.edu.mt/maks/ipg at the Faculty of Media & Knowledge Sciences of the University of Malta and, concurrently, also Chair of European Information Policy & Technology Law within the Faculty of Law at the University of Groningen.  

While originally - and still principally - a specialist in information policy and technology law, for the past several years Joe has also been researching and carrying out fieldwork on the impact of ICT and the notion of privacy amongst indigenous peoples within Kenya (Ogiek, Samburu,, Turkana), since expanding this work to Australia, Brazil and Malaysia. Some of this work has evolved as part of the process of development of technology policy in emerging economies, with particular focus on India and Kenya http://www.set-dev.eu/   where he led the efforts to take into account the privacy needs and information traditions of indigenous peoples. This work continues to be taken forward within the PAPAC-PACIT, PRIVATUS, BANYA-PEST, PEATITA and other projects.

A considerable deal of Joe’s time is dedicated to collaborative research. (See separate section on Research – follow link on top left of page) while he also continues to act as Expert Consultant to a number of international organisations. During 2022-2023 he was engaged by the Council of Europe to chair the Group of Experts working on developing an interpretative document for Article 11 of Convention 108+. Previously, in 2012 he was also engaged by the Council of Europe to develop  a concept paper on the application of data protection regulations in relation to transborder private/public information sharing for (a) network security purposes and (b) criminal justice purposes. For the period 2013-2016, he was a domain-expert as well as a member of the Management Committee of the EU-funded COST ICT 1206 Project “De-identification for privacy protection in multimedia content”. In 2010 Joe was External Consultant for the Impact Assessment of policy options for data protection law in Europe contracted by the European Commission to GHK International. During 2010, he was also Expert Consultant engaged by Council of Europe’s Consultative Committee (T-PD) and Directorate for Legal Affairs and Human Rights to review provisions of the European Data Protection Convention and Recommendation (R(87)15 on police use of personal data.

In addition to the most recent titles mentioned above, Joe has written books and articles on data protection law, liability for expert systems and other AI, legal aspects of medical informatics, copyright in computer software and co-authored various papers and textbook chapters on self-regulation and the Internet, the EU Constitution and data protection, on-line dispute resolution, data retention and police data.

Joe has served as a member of the Executive of the British & Irish Law, Education & Technology Association (BILETA) http://www.bileta.ac.uk/pages/Membership.aspx, the International Advisory Board of the International Review of Law, Computers & Technology, the Editorial Board of the Masaryk University Journal of Law and Technology and  the Comitato Scientifico della "Rivista di Diritto, Economia e Gestione delle Nuove Tecnologie".

In 2005 he was decorated by the Republic of France and elevated to Officier dans l’ordre des palmes académiques http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20050501/social/heard-in-the-hive.91694. His pioneering role in the development of technology law and especially privacy law was cited as one of the main reasons for his being made the recipient of such an honour as was his contribution to the development of European information policy. In 1993 Joe was Rapporteur on the use of personal data for Police Purposes to the Project Group on Data Protection of the Council of Europe. He was Chairman of several Committees of Experts of the Council of Europe:  MedialLex (1994),  the Working Party on Data Protection in Insurance (1994-1997), Working Party on Data Protection in New technologies (1995-2000), the Committee of Experts on Data Protection (1996-98) and Vice-Chairman of the Group of Specialists on the impact of New Communications Technologies on Fundamental Rights & Democratic Values (1999-2001).

While Joe has been in academic life without a break since 1986, he has also maintained first a part-time presence as an IT lawyer  involved in international practice in the B2B legal aspects of new technologies including drafting and negotiating  IT Project contracts, hardware and software, sales and licensing contracts and various IP-related issues including source code agreements. He is currently a UDRP Panelist of the Czech Arbitration Court where, utilizing On-line Dispute Resolution (ODR) methodologies, he was amongst the first “on-line judges” to deliver decisions in disputes on .eu Top Level Domain names http://www.adr.eu/adr/panelists/index.php.

His experience in the business sector and academic management has not been confined to law. Between 1992 and 1996 he was consultant to and subsequently Chairman of the IT Steering Committee for Malta’s largest bank (today HSBC). During 1998-1999, he led a team from the Centre for Communication Technology of the University of Malta in a national project on “Redefining the role of public broadcasting in Malta” commissioned by the Minister of Education, Media & Culture. Between 2000 and 2002, he was the Project Director entrusted with kick-starting the 5-campus Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology, which is now responsible for FE provision to some 5,000 students. Between 2001 and 2002 he was a member of the IT Steering Committee responsible for the successful implementation of  ORACLE Financials within the national carrier Air Malta. During 2002-2005 he was Project Director for the multi-million Euro IKONOS project where he designed and implemented a Satellite-enabled Wide Area Network for distance learning in cultural heritage across Algeria, Jordan, Greece, Malta, Morocco, and the Netherlands.

Joe is as passionate about history, education and cultural heritage as he is about law and information sciences. A committee member and later Treasurer of the Malta Historical Society (1978-1985), he was appointed by the Council of the University of Malta as (founding) Chairman of the Malta Centre for Restoration for two terms between 1999 and 2005 where he established the Institute for Conservation and Restoration Studies. His publications during this period include papers on the Philosophy of Conservation Education, Thealasermetry and the use of hybrid technologies to survey heritage sites and e-heritage.  He was a Trustee of the Foundation for Cultural Heritage Memory established by Maltacom to use technological means to preserve and facilitate access to parts of our heritage such a music, images and oral tradition. He maintains his sanity and a sense of humour by forming part of cultural heritage conservation teams together with colleagues from Czech Republic, Italy, Romania and the UK engaged in field-work around the world.