Bio

Conference material: you pick the short bio (in Dutch below) or long bio, whatever suits you. High resolution photos: preferred and close-up. Fantastic if you could attribute the photos to Michiel Goudswaard.

Short bio:

Axel Arnbak is a Partner at law firm De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek, Fellow at the Institute for Information Law (University of Amsterdam) and columnist at the Dutch Financial Times. In 2021, he was selected as one of the ’40 under 40′ privacy professionals by Global Data Review and a Rising Star by Legal500 and Chambers Europe. Axel works on information security, privacy and communications freedoms —  or, as some have it, ‘cyber’ issues. Axel obtained his doctorate in 2015 with his book ‘Securing Private Communications’, was a 2014/15 Research Affiliate and a 2013/14 resident Research Fellow at Harvard University’s Berkman Center and CITP, Princeton University.  He is a board member of the American-European Community Association (AECA) and Stichting Admiraal van Kinsbergenfonds. From 2009 until 2011, Axel was a core member of the team that re-started Dutch digital rights organization Bits of Freedom and revitalized European Digital Rights.

Longer bio:

Axel Arnbak is a Partner at law firm De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek, Fellow at the Institute for Information Law (University of Amsterdam) and columnist at the Dutch Financial Times. In 2021, he was selected as one of the ’40 under 40′ privacy professionals by Global Data Review and a Rising Star by Legal500 and Chambers Europe. He works on information security, privacy and communications freedoms —  or, as some have it, ‘cyber’ issues. Axel obtained his doctorate in 2015 with his book ‘Securing Private Communications’, was a 2014/15 Research Affiliate and a 2013/14 resident Research Fellow at Harvard University’s Berkman Center and CITP, Princeton University. In addition to his column, Axel blogs at Freedom to Tinker.  He is a board member of the American-European Community Association (AECA) and Stichting Admiraal van Kinsbergenfonds.

Axel has published on a.o. HTTPS/TLS governance, cloud and network surveillance by intelligence agencies, communications security, data protection and mandatory blocking of The Pirate Bay. His publications and writings have spurred several parliamentary debates on the European and Dutch level; recently on internet surveillance by intelligence agencies on both sides of the Atlantic. His work has been covered by a wide range of international media outlets, a.o. the Financial Times, CBS News, RT, Sud Deutsche and the Wall Street Journal.

In 2009, Axel was part of the core team that re-started Dutch digital rights organization Bits of Freedom. He campaigned for privacy and communications freedoms on both the Dutch and the EU level as part of European Digital Rights. In his two years at Bits of Freedom, Axel helped drafting and campaigning for a digital freedoms package that contains the first net neutrality law ever adopted in Europe, stopped mandatory website blocking in The Netherlands, organized several Big Brother Awards, lead numerous efforts against the EU Data Retention Directive and kept the Dutch government from storing all financial information of all its citizens in a national database for law enforcement purposes.

Axel was awarded the Internet Thesis Award 2009 and general University of Amsterdam Thesis Award 2010 for his Master’s thesis on the fundamental rights aspects of the EU Data Retention Directive and its Dutch implementation. Axel received his LL.B. degree from Leiden University (2007), a Competitive Strategy and Game Theory degree from the London School of Economics (2009) and chaired the VeerStichting foundation (2005-2006).

Korte bio:

Axel Arnbak is Partner bij advocatenkantoor De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek, columnist bij het Financieele Dagblad en Fellow aan het Instituut voor Informatierecht (IViR) van de Universiteit van Amsterdam. In 2021, werd hij uitverkoren tot een van de ’40 under 40′ privacy professionals door de Global Data Review en een ‘Rising Star’ door Legal500.  Eind 2015 promoveerde hij aan het IViR met het proefschrift ‘Securing Private Communications’, dat in 2016 is uitgegeven als zelfstandig boek. Voor zijn onderzoek was Axel als Fellow verbonden aan het Berkman Center van Harvard University en CITP, Princeton University. Hij is bestuurslid bij Stichting Admiraal Van Kinsbergenfonds en the American-European Community Association (AECA). Vanaf de herstart tot 2011, werkte Axel bij digitale burgerrechtenbeweging Bits of Freedom.

Hij blogt op Freedom to Tinker en zijn eigen website https://www.axelarnbak.nl, waar je al zijn schrijfsels – ook zijn maandelijkse FD columns en boek – gratis kunt lezen en downloaden.

Law and policy at the digital frontier