Ivan Szekely is an internationally known expert in the multidisciplinary fields of data protection and freedom of information. A long-time independent researcher, consultant and university lecturer, former chief counsellor of the Hungarian Parliamentary Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information, Szekely is at present Counsellor of the Open Society Archives at Central European University and associate professor at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics. He has conducted research in the areas of data protection, information privacy, access to public information and archivistics. He participated in founding several national and international organizations in the area of data protection and FOI, shaping their strategies and activities. As member of experts' teams he contributed to the framing and drafting of legislation regarding openness and secrecy in several new European democracies. A university professor, regular conference lecturer and author of notable publications, Szekely is member of several international research groups, among others, the ‘Broadening the Range Of Awareness in Data protection’ (BROAD), and the ‘Ethical Issues of Emerging ICT Applications (ETICA)’ projects of the European Union.

Research Networks and Activity:

• BROAD (Broadening the Range Of Awareness in Data protection) is a collaborative effort of Hungarian and Dutch not-for-profit organizations, to raise awareness in the area of data protection and information privacy by using innovative means and methods.
• Surveillance Workshop in the ‘Learning a Foreign Language’ annual seminar series organized jointly by the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, and the Research Center for Information Law at the University of St. Gallen.
• The Surveillance Project is a multi-disciplinary and international research initiative based in the Department of Sociology at Queen's University, Kingston, Canada.

 

Select recent publications:

• Szekely, Ivan (2011), What Do IT Professionals Think About Surveillance? In Christian Fuchs, Kees Boersma, Anders Albrechtslund and Marisol Sandoval (eds.), Internet and Surveillance. The Challenge of Web 2.0 and Social Media, New York: Routledge.
• Szekely, Ivan (2010), “The Four Paradigms of Archival History”, Journal of Information Technology Research Vol. 3, Issue 4, IGI-Global, Hershey, PA, pp. 51–82. www.igi-global.com/bookstore/article.aspx
• Szekely, Ivan (2010), Changing attitudes in a changing society? Information privacy in Hungary 1989–2006, in Elia Zureik, Lynda Harling Stalker and David Lyon (eds.), , Surveillance, Privacy, and the Globalization of Personal Information: International Comparisons. McGill-Queen’s University Press, Montreal & Kingston, London, Ithaca, pp. 150–170.
• Szekely, Ivan (2009), Freedom of Information versus Privacy: Friends or Foes? In Serge Gutwirth, Yves Poullet, Paul De Hert, Cécile de Terwangne and Sjaak Nouwt (eds.): Reinventing Data Protection? Springer Science+Business Media B.V., pp. 293–316.
• Szekely, Ivan (2009), Positive Discrimination and Data Protection: A Typology of Solutions and the Use of Modern Information Technologies, in Máté Dániel Szabó (ed.), Privacy Protection and Minority Rights, Eötvös Károly Policy Institute, Budapest, pp. 27–61. ekint.org/ekint_files/kiadvanyok/privacy_minority.pdf
• Szekely, Ivan (2008), Hungary, in James B. Rule and Graham Greenleaf (eds.), Global Privacy Protection: The First Generation, Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd., Cheltenham, UK, pp. 174–206.