Embedded Files
My name is Antoinette. I work in tech public policy, data protection, privacy and data governance. I have lived, worked and studied in London, Brussels, Berlin and Quebec.
I hold a master's degree from King's College London in political economy. For my research dissertation I conducted interviews with politicians, industry reps and regulators, asking the question: does tech lobbying work? I previously attended the University of Sussex for a bachelor's in linguistics.
Jump to:
Professional interests
The short version:
Tech policy, privacy innovation, data protection and data rights, data governance, AI governance, privacy by design, privacy enhancing technologies, innovation in regulation.
The long(ish) version:
I worked in the UK's data protection authority as well as in privacy, data protection and data governance for a range of global brands. I like what I do. My experience working on emerging tech policy inside a regulator gives me a unique insight into how public bodies make policy decisions and how they pursue enforcement. With that experience, I've been able to lead data protection, governance and privacy programmes in several global companies and bring together both compliance and innovation priorities. My policy and regulatory insights have been key to helping companies bring new products to market.
Privacy innovation: Marks & Spencer, a global food and fashion brand
Beyond my core role in data governance at Marks and Spencer, I became a privacy, data protection and innovation specialist for colleagues who lead emerging technology projects. I gave advice on data protection best practice, privacy risk, interpreting ICO guidance and baking in good governance and responsible design from the start. This included advising on an AI stylist, advising on the use of AI in recruitment processes, advising on the use of personal data for marketing and targeting, and advising on the risks of using special category data drawn from customer research.
M&S is a £12 billion FTSE100 company with a 150-year heritage in the UK. The retailer, known for its quality goods, employs 65,000 people and serves 22 million customers.
Case study: AI public policy engagements at Meta
I worked in the public policy team at Meta. The attention on generative AI throughout 2023 fostered as much excitement in-house as it did across the world. I surveyed relevant engagement opportunities in the UK, ensuring that my team of legal, policy, comms and product experts would be ready to act at the right moment - whether that was responding to the AI white paper, fostering introductions to policymakers or leading policy discussion meetings with government stakeholders.
I developed partnerships with the government’s Foundation Model Taskforce and with the CDEI (Centre for Data Ethics & Innovation) on AI assurance. My work to coordinate my team and liaise with stakeholders in a timely way allowed Meta to land its key messages to a range of high profile policymakers.
Case study: strategic policy programming for a regulator
I worked in the ICO technology team where I led on the PETs (privacy enhancing technologies), anonymisation and data sharing policy programmes. This involved strategic development and delivery of the policy programme in line with ICO priorities and with other regulators. Overall we wanted to ensure regulatory cohesion and promote harmonisation in digital markets and we needed to build industry relations quickly.
I launched two projects. First, I convened and chaired the PETs expert forum; and second, I sourced funding and delivered the PETs for Public Good research project.
The PETs expert forum was a group of 50 C-suite leaders, startups, big tech firms, thinktanks, consultants and international NGOs brought together by me to foster regulatory engagement and develop industry relations. Feedback from forum members showed they hugely valued this collaborative approach and this improved relationships between the regulator and industry. A forum member said: 'it feels like the regulator is finally listening'.
In tandem, I led the PETs for Public Good project which explored the innovation and adoption of PETs through the lens of data sharing in the healthcare sector. I won a grant of £182,000 from central government to deliver this project in partnership with Plexal and AWS. I hired in consultants to engage with over 250 industry reps and technical specialists through interviews and curated workshops. I authored the final report and delivered a range of recommendations for the ICO, which were keenly adopted. My work on PETs was recognised throughout the ICO and the Commissioner himself, John Edwards, presented my work to the G7 data protection authorities’ annual summit in 2022.
Project media
PETs for Public Good launch day at Plexal
Feature in the Society for Computers & Law including coverage of the G7 privacy commissioners' discussions on PETs
Campaign: International Planned Parenthood Federation
Brief
Response and outcome
Campaign media
In January 2017, the US president implemented the Mexico City Policy, which is designed to defund healthcare providers in developing countries if they offer or advise on safe and legal abortion care.
As a result of this policy, the International Planned Parenthood Federation lost an estimated US$ 100 million in funding for projects due to take place from 2017 to 2019. This funding would have been designated to 45 projects in 33 developing countries to fund neonatal healthcare, midwives, malaria services, HIV testing, treatment for STIs, free condoms and contraception, and dignity kits for those displaced by natural disasters - and, safe and legal abortions.
Response and outcome
I led on a global campaign highlighting the damage of this policy from 2018 to 2019. IPPF did not denounce the administration. Instead we took the approach to raise the profile of the damage of this policy and to raise funds from donor governments and foundations to fill the US$ 100 million gap, by no means a small sum.
With a huge international response, many millions donated and extensive, long term media coverage, IPPF projects were able to recover on the ground and continue to serve last mile communities with essential, dignified, lifesaving healthcare.
Campaign media
MA Political Economy research
Background
Title
Abstract
This research project was presented for a master of arts in political economy at King's College London. I studied my master's part time between 2017 and 2019, whilst working full time. KCL is the only UK university with a dedicated department of political economy. I enjoyed lectures with Professor Mark Pennington, a world leading academic in political science, and Dr Martin Moore, Director of the Centre for the Study of Media, Communication and Power.
Title
To what extent does Facebook’s self-regulatory and lobbying activity influence technology regulation in Europe?
Abstract
Self-regulation and lobbying influence state regulation. This paper examines developments in technology regulation in a contemporary context with two objectives, analysing Facebook’s lobbying and self-regulatory activity in Europe in the last two years. First, a case study of Facebook’s self-regulatory activity during the abortion access referendum in Ireland in 2018 traces a causal mechanism identifying the necessary set of conditions for self-regulation. These conditions include a public scandal, public pressure, pressure from internal staff and real-time evidence of wrongdoing. Second, a narrative analysis examines the tactics employed by Facebook actors through lobbying and self-regulation and the subsequent effect on policymakers’ preferences. Through a combination of industry expertise, selective information transfer and lobbying on specific policies, lobbyists shaped state regulation with policies that would not damage business models. Nonetheless, state actors still express regulatory power over even the largest firms and are able to introduce moderate regulation despite lobbying efforts.
Google Sites
Report abuse