Harmonising Privacy-Preservation and Interoperability for Data Sharing in Smart Environments

Data-rich smart environments are poised to transform nearly every aspect of modern society, offering substantial benefits to European citizens and businesses, including enhanced sustainability, efficiency, and convenience. However, to unlock these promises, it is crucial that different systems and layers of the smart environment work together seamlessly. This interoperability, while necessary, introduces significant privacy challenges, particularly given the vast amounts of personal data these environments will collect.

The expansion of IoT and edge applications, which are essential to the evolution of smart environments, also amplifies the risks of deceptive data generation, profiling, real-time security compliance issues, and vulnerabilities in storage and identity management. Additionally, ensuring data privacy—especially in environments with edge nodes—presents sustainability challenges, as encryption methods are often energy-intensive.

Addressing these challenges is critical for Europe to advance towards the next generation of data-driven, intelligent systems. However, several key questions must be explored to shape the future of these environments:

1. How can intelligent environments leverage their data ecosystems to foster these potential societal benefits while also being privacy-conscious?
2. How can data sharing between smart systems be facilitated in a way that ensures both privacy and sustainability?
3. What solutions exist for ensuring data privacy in smart environments with high interoperability, and how can these solutions be implemented in an energy-efficient manner?

The GLACIATION Project aims to tackle these challenges by bringing together industry leaders, innovators, researchers, and policymakers to discuss the most pressing issues of interoperability, data privacy, and sustainability in smart environments. Hosted by GLACIATION partner, the Leibniz University Hannover, this discussion will pay special attention to the GLACIATION solution, alongside other related initiatives, to showcase cutting-edge approaches in this field.

This event will provide a platform for collaboration, knowledge sharing, and the exchange of best practices, all with the goal of accelerating the development of secure, sustainable, and intelligent smart environments.