Annual Privacy Forum 2026
September 9-10, 2026 | Salzburg, Austria
https://privacyforum.eu/callforpapers.html
Call for Papers
Theme: Ten Years of GDPR – Engineering the Future
Ten years after the adoption of the General Data Protection Regulation
(GDPR), this EU legal framework together with the technical
developments remains the global point of reference for empowering
individuals and ensuring a high-level of protection in terms of
privacy. However, the challenges of the next decade look very
different from the last. Rapid advances in artificial intelligence,
data-driven business models and governmental practices, and complex
digital services are testing the limits of established privacy norms
in Europe and beyond. APF 2026 invites the community to contribute to
the understanding of what is at stake, where new threats originate,
and how law, technology, and practice can be integrated to address
current and imminent challenges.
Against this background, the University of Salzburg and Goethe
University Frankfurt jointly organize the Annual Privacy Forum (APF)
2026 in Salzburg, Austria.
For the APF 2026, we invite papers presenting original work on the
themes of data protection and privacy and their repercussions on
technology, business, government, law, society, policy and law
enforcement. An interdisciplinary approach is highly encouraged to
contribute to bridging the gap between research, business models and
policy.
Participation Fee Notice: APF 2026 will include a participation fee
(amount to be announced). The fee is planned to cover open-access
publication costs and core programme/social dinner costs. Fee updates
will be published regularly as details are finalized.
Important Dates
**Submission Deadlines have passed.
Abstract submission*: April 1st, 2026 April 15, 2026 (extended) (23:59 AoE)
Submission of full papers: April 10th, 2026 April 22, 2026
(extended) (23:59 AoE)
Notification to authors: May 22nd, 2026
Camera-ready copies: June 12th, 2026
Conference Dates: September 9-10, 2026
* To facilitate reviewer matching, we ask authors to submit the
paper's abstract (~200 - 300 words) beforehand. This allows program
committee members to bid on papers in their area of expertise before
assignments are made — this way, the reviewing can start on the day
of the full paper submission.
Topics of Interest
Topics of interest particularly include:
Law, Policy, and Strategy
Ten Years of GDPR: Enforcement challenges and future reform
Privacy and data protection in the EU Data Strategy (Data Act, DGA, DSA) and the AI Act
Data intermediaries and data custodianship
Economics of privacy and personal data
Data protection policies, certification, and auditing
Engineering and Technology
State of the art in privacy and data protection engineering
Data Protection by Design and by Default
Anonymisation and pseudonymisation techniques
Real-world applications of privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs)
Privacy in Generative AI, LLMs, and Federated Learning
Privacy in IoT and mobile networks (5G, 6G, and beyond)
EU Digital Identity Wallets and applications
Empirical assessment of privacy technologies and architectures
under real-world regulatory constraints
Society, Users, and Ethics
Human factors of privacy and security (usability, nudging, dark patterns, etc.)
Consent management and data subject rights
Transparency, intervenability, and unlinkability
Trust management and accountability
Data protection for vulnerable groups
Implementations and Case Studies
Real-world aspects or case studies of privacy management
Privacy risk management and impact assessments (DPIA, FRIA, etc.)
Real-world implementations of innovative “by design” technologies
Personal data breaches
Paper Categories
APF 2026 seeks original contributions from researchers and academia,
policy makers and implementers, data protection authorities, industry,
consultants, NGOs, as well as civil society. All papers need to be
genuine in content and should not overlap with work published
elsewhere.
Full Papers
Up to 8,000 words*.
Research or Opinion Papers. Full research papers need to be genuine in
content and should not overlap with work published elsewhere. Opinion
papers are expected to reflect the views of the author(s).
Student Papers
Up to 4,000 words*.
In order to encourage participation of young researchers, the
submission of student papers is particularly encouraged. These papers
will be treated as thoroughly as full papers, but can be shorter (up
to 4000 words, excluding bibliography and appendices) and reflect
novel thinking that might not have been fully elaborated just yet.
Short Papers
Up to 4,000 words*.
In addition to student papers, short papers are also invited, as this
call is open to anyone who has a sketch of an idea, an opinion, or a
call for collaboration.
* Word limits exclude bibliography and well-marked appendices.
Submission & Review Process
Submissions of original work are invited; papers must not overlap
substantially with work already published or simultaneously submitted
to a journal or another venue with published proceedings. Submissions
must be drafted in English and need to comply with the Springer LNCS
style guide. Within the submitted manuscript, authors are advised to
note below the title whether their submission is a research/opinion
paper, a student paper, or a short paper.
Note on AI: APF allows the usage of AI-based systems for improving
language and grammar issues, but not for content generation. The use
of AI tools must be declared explicitly within the submission.
All submissions will be thoroughly reviewed by our PC members. We aim
for a minimum of 3 reviews per paper (except in cases of clear desk
rejection).
Authors must submit their papers according to the conditions and
within the deadlines indicated above.
Note on the abstract submission: For facilitating reviewer assignment,
we scheduled the abstract deadline shortly before the full paper
deadline. This is not an additional review process, but an
organizational step to speed up the reviewing process, following
standard practice in many computer science conferences. Therefore, an
abstract submission is mandatory to hand in the full paper. Please
enter your abstract (~200–300 words) as plain text in EasyChair by the
abstract deadline (no PDF required). You can then update your
submission to upload the full paper PDF by the full paper deadline.
Publication
Proceedings will be published by Springer LNCS.
Further to APF 2026 Springer LNCS proceedings, selected papers will be
invited to submit an extended version of the manuscript to a special
issue of the Privacy Studies Journal.
Note: An extended version can be published in a journal when it
includes at least 30% new material, cites the original publication,
and includes an explicit statement about the increment.
The details for the submission to the Privacy Studies Journal and the review process will be communicated to the invited authors as part of the invitation.
Submission
https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=apf2026