Damian Clifford

Senior Lecturer

Biography
Research
Teaching

Damian Clifford is a senior lecturer at the Australian National University, College of Law and an associate researcher at Information Law and Policy Centre at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (University of London). His research focuses predominantly on data protection, privacy and the regulation of technology. Before becoming a senior lecturer, Damian was a postdoctoral research fellow at the ANU College of Law from February-December 2020. He has also previously been a visiting lecturer at the Dickson Poon School of Law, Kings College London (2018-2019), a sessional lecturer and honorary fellow at the Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne and a sessional lecturer at Swinburne University of Technology. Damian completed his PhD at the KU Leuven Centre for IT & IP Law (CiTiP) where he was a FWO Aspirant Fellow funded by Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek – Vlaanderen (FWO) from October 2015 to October 2019. Prior to his FWO fellowship, Damian worked on European Commission funded (FP7 and Horizon 2020) projects in the fields of inter alia Critical Infrastructure Protection, Public Sector Information re-use and Cloud Computing at CiTiP. During this period he split his time between institutions by also working for the University of Antwerp.

Appointments

Associate researcher at Information Law and Policy Centre at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (University of London)

Significant research publications

Clifford, D., ‘Citizen-consumers in a personalised Galaxy: Emotion influenced decision-making, a true path to the dark side?’ in Future Law: Emerging Technology, Regulation and Ethics, Lilian Edwards, Burkhard Shaffer and Edina Harbinja (eds.) (Edinburgh Uni Press (2020)).
Clifford, D. and Graef, I. and Valcke, P., ‘Pre-Formulated Declarations of Data Subject Consent – Citizen-Consumer Empowerment and the Alignment of Data, Consumer and Competition Law Protections.’ German Law Journal 2019, 20, 5, 679-721.
Clifford, D. and Ausloos, J. Data Protection and the Role of Fairness, Yearbook of European Law, Volume 37, 2018, 130–187, https://doi.org/10.1093/yel/yey004
Clifford, D., Verdoodt, V., Integrative advertising: The marketing ‘dark side’ or merely the Emperor’s new clothes? (Special issue of the European Journal of Law and Technology (2017) Vol 8, No 1, 1-43.
Clifford, D., Van Der Sype, Yung Shin (2016). Online dispute resolution: Settling data protection disputes in a digital world of customers. Computer Law and Security Report, 32 (2), 272-285.
Clifford, D., EU Data Protection Law and Targeted Advertising: Consent and the Cookie Monster - Tracking the crumbs of online user behaviour, (5 (3) (2014) JIPITEC, 194-212.

Related websites

Twitter

Grants

FWO Aspirant Fellow funded by Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek – Vlaanderen (FWO) from October 2015 to October 2019 at KU Leuven Centre for IT & IP Law (Belgium).

Books & edited collections

Clifford, D. The Legal Limits to the Monetisation of Online Emotions. (Forthcoming OUP).

Refereed journal articles

Damian Clifford and Jeannie Paterson, ‘Consumer Privacy and Consent: Reform in the Light of Contract and Consumer Protection Law’, Australian Law Journal (2020).
Megan Richardson, Damian Clifford, Karin Clarke and Rachelle Bosua, ‘The Internet of Things and The Meaning of “Personal Data”: A Case Study in Regulation for Rights’, Revue européenne de droit de la consommation (Special issue Internet of Things and Consumer Protection, 2020).
Clifford, D. and Graef, I. and Valcke, P., Pre-Formulated Declarations of Data Subject Consent – Citizen-Consumer Empowerment and the Alignment of Data, Consumer and Competition Law Protections (forthcoming German Law Journal 2019).
Graef, I., Clifford, D. and Valcke, P., ‘Fairness and Enforcement: Bridging Competition, Data Protection and Consumer Law’, International Data Privacy Law (Special issue 2018).
Clifford, D., Ausloos, J., Data Protection and the Role of Fairness, (Yearbook of European Law 2018).
Valcke, P., Graef, I. and Clifford, D. (2018). ‘iFairness – Constructing Fairness in IT (and other areas of) Law Through Intra- and Interdisciplinarity’, Computer Law and Security Review, 34, 4, 707-714.
Clifford, D., Verdoodt, V., (2017). Integrative advertising: The marketing ‘dark side’ or merely the Emperor’s new clothes? (Special issue of the European Journal of Law and Technology – Vol 8, No 1).
Verdoodt, V., Clifford, D., Lievens, E. (2016). Toying with children’s emotions, the new game in town? The legality of advergames in the EU. Computer Law and Security Report, 32 (2016) 599–614.
Clifford, D., Van Der Sype, Yung Shin (2016). Online dispute resolution: Settling data protection disputes in a digital world of customers. Computer Law and Security Report, 32 (2), 272-285.
Clifford, D., The Role of the EU in the Re-use of Member State Public Sector Information—the Commercialisation of Publicly Available Data and the Practical Legal Consequences (2015) 22(1) Commercial Law Practitioner.
Clifford, D., EU Data Protection Law and Targeted Advertising: Consent and the Cookie Monster - Tracking the crumbs of online user behaviour, (5 (3) (2014) JIPITEC pp.194-212).

Book chapters

Normann Witzleb, Megan Richardson and Damian Clifford, ‘Artificial Intelligence and Sensitive Inferences: Protecting Sensitive Personal Data in the Age of Anxiety ’ in Regulatory Insights on Artificial Intelligence: Research for Policy, Findlay, Ford, Seoh and Thampapillai (eds.) (Forthcoming 2021).
Clifford, D. ‘Data Protection and Consumer Protection – The Empowerment of the Citizen-Consumer’, in Research Handbook on Privacy and Data Protection Law: Values, Norms and Global Politics, Gloria González Fuster, Rosamunde van Brakel and Paul De Hert (eds.) (Forthcoming 2021).
Valcke, P., Clifford D. and Steponėnaitė, V.K., ‘Constitutional Challenges in the Emotional AI Era’, in Constitutional Challenges in the Algorithmic Society, Giovanni De Gregorio et al. (eds) (Forthcoming, 2021 Cambridge University Press).
Clifford, D., ‘Citizen-consumers in a personalised Galaxy: Emotion influenced decision-making, a true path to the dark side?’ in Future law book series, Lilian Edwards, Edina Harbinja and Burkhard Shaffer (eds.) (Edinburgh Uni Press (2020)).
Anne-Lise Sibony and Damian Clifford, 'La personnalisation illicite: La perspective du droit européen de la consommation', in Le Big Data et le Droit, Florence G'sell (ed.), (Dalloz 2020), 249-272.
Schroers, J., Clifford, D., ‘Legal Implications of information in sharing’ in Collaborative Cyber Threat Intelligence: Detecting and Responding to Advanced Cyber Attacks at the National Level Florian Skopik (ed.) October 2017 CRC Press.

Conference papers & presentations

Papers

Lisa Archbold and Damian Clifford, ‘COVID-19, Edtech, Privacy and Children’ at Privacy and Pandemics Information Network, June Roundtable, Melbourne Law School, Monday 15th June 2020.
Clifford, D. Fairness, data ethics and the legal limits to EU harmonisation. Amsterdam Privacy Conference, University of Amsterdam, 5-8 October 2018.
Clifford, D., Verdoodt, V. Ad-blocking - the dark side of consumer empowerment: a new hope or will the empire strike back? BILETA Conference. University of Hertfordshire, 11-12 April 2016.
Verdoodt, V., Clifford, D., Lievens, E. (2015). Toying with children’s emotions, the new game in town? The legality of advergames in the EU. Privacy Law Scholars Conference. Amsterdam, 26th September 2015.
Clifford, D., Van Der Sype, Yung Shin, Fides Fido: Online Dispute Resolution a trusted solution to e-commerce disputes? Information Ethics and Security, Future of International World Time, (2014) 206-218.

Presentations

Clifford, D., ‘Smart Contracts and Data Privacy’, at Blockchain Technology, Data Management and Smart Contracts: Challenges and Opportunities Australian National University 24 February 2020.
Clifford, D., Ausloos, J., Naudts, L., ‘Fairness in EU (data protection) law’, Invited Tutorial FAT* Barcelona, 2020.
Clifford, D. Panel – ‘Data protection in the smart city: accountability in the multi-actor city environment’, Computers Privacy and Data Protection, Brussels, 2020.
Clifford, D. ‘The Unfair contract terms Directive and pre-formulated declarations of data subject consent’, Australia – New Zealand Consumer Law Roundtable, University of Melbourne, December 2019.
Clifford, D. ‘Smart cities’ and the protection of sensitive personal data’, Media and IP Conference, University of Melbourne, December 2019.
Clifford, D. Panel – ‘Rights in the Digital Age’, Consumer Policy Research Centre Annual Conference, Melbourne, November 2019
Clifford, D. Panel Chair – (Self-)Portrait in Profile: Profiling and its Effects on Data Subjects in the Light of the New Guidelines, Computers Privacy and Data Protection 24-26 January 2018.
Verdoodt V., Clifford D., Lievens E. (2015). Playing by the Rules? Collecting minors’ personal data through advergames. Communication & Media Policy in Europe: Policy Challenges in the Austerity & Surveillance Environment, ECREA Communication Law and Policy Workshop, Ljubljana, 7th November 2015.
Clifford, D. Panel – ‘Data and Privacy’, Digital Citizens Conference, University of Melbourne, July 2019.
Clifford, D., ‘The Detection of Emotion: The Definition of Personal Data and the ‘Identifiability’ of the Data Subject’, BILETA Conference Aberdeen 10-11 April 2018.
Clifford, D. ‘The monetisation of online emotions – Personalisation and citizen-consumer Autonomy’, University of Bristol Law School, SLSA Annual Conference 27-29 March 2018.
Clifford, D. Discussant at Privacy Law Scholars Conference Europe Brussels 2018.
Clifford, D. Panel – Disconnecting Frameworks: e-Privacy, Digital Content Directive and the GDPR, Computers Privacy and Data Protection, 24-26 January 2018.
Verdoodt V., Clifford D. (2015). Privacy concerns and the legal boundaries in the fight against botnets. Internet Security Days, Brühl, Germany, 16-17 September 2015.
Verdoodt V., Clifford D., Lievens E. (2015). The game is on! A critical assessment of the legal compliance of advergames directed at children. International Summer School on Cyber Law, Moscow, 6-10 July 2015.

Invited seminars

Clifford, D. ‘International data transfers, trade negotiations and the reform of the Australian Privacy Act’, Evening seminar Institute of Advance Legal Studies University of London, 15 October 2020.
Clifford, D. ‘The transboundary flow of personal data – Privacy, data protection and EU law’, Australian National University, Centre for European Studies, 26th November 2019.
Clifford, D. ‘The Legal Limits to the Monetisation of Online Emotions’, Australian National University, College of Law, Wednesday 19th June 2019.
Clifford, D. ‘Emotion Detection, Personalisation and Autonomous Decision-Making Online’, University of Western Australia, 15th April 2019.
Clifford, D. ‘Emotional cripple: Tech-legal considerations of emotion detection’, Computer Laboratory Cambridge University, Cambridge 27th March 2018, https://talks.cam.ac.uk/talk/index/103438.
Clifford, D. ‘Artificial Intelligence and the Judiciary: Is there a role?’, Evening seminar Institute of Advance Legal Studies University of London, London 6th March 2018, http://ials.sas.ac.uk/events/event/15596.
Clifford, D. European Data Protection Supervisor and the Brussels Privacy Hub ‘Putting a price on your invaluable private life? Personal data and the values behind’, Brussels 20th February 2018, https://brusselsprivacyhub.eu/events/20022018.html.
Clifford, D. ‘Emotion detection, personalisation and autonomous decision-making online’, Evening seminar Institute of Advance Legal Studies University of London, London 5th February 2018, https://ials.sas.ac.uk/events/event/15542.
Clifford, D., ‘Following the data and consumer protection crumbs towards more aligned protection?’, Guest seminar at TILT Tilburg University 27th June 2017.
Clifford, D., Valcke, P. ‘Profiled personalisation’, Dagstuhl Seminar 17162 ‘Online Privacy and Web Transparency’ (17-19 April 2017).
Clifford, D., ‘Profiled personalisation and citizen-consumer autonomy: In (all) “fairness” is change needed?’, Guest seminar at CIPIL Cambridge University, April 10th, 2017.
Clifford, D., Fairness in data protection, Guest seminar at IVIR University of Amsterdam, 31st of March 2017.

Commissioned reports

Clifford D., Fairness and the General Data Protection Regulation – Operationalising Fairness in Data Protection Impact Assessments, Draft report for Davidson Chalmers Stewart LLP commissioned by Office of the Data Protection Officer at Facebook, (25 July 2020) [77 pages].
Graef I., Clifford D., Study on contractual terms and conditions of large e-commerce platforms Final report, European Commission DG for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (December 2017) [95 pages].
Verdoodt V., Clifford D., E Silva K. 2015. ACDC D1.8.2 – Legal Requirements (second iteration). http://acdc-project.eu/ [43 pages].
Verdoodt V., Clifford D. 2015. Policy Recommendations for Public Authorities Dealing with the Regulatory Aspects of the Fight against Botnets. http://acdc-project.eu/ [25 pages].
E Silva K., Verdoodt V., Clifford D. 2015. ACDC D4.3 – Legal validation of the prototype tested during the Pilot. http://acdc-project.eu/ [59 pages].
Ombelet P., Clifford D. 2015. CLARUS Deliverable 2.4 Legal and Ethical Requirements. [69 pages].
Clifford D., Verdoodt V., Spangaro A., Finocchiato G. 2015. D7.3 - Information sharing policies in disaster situations – Version 1.
Vedder A., Clifford D., Truskaller M., Koch K. (2015). D9.4 - Report from Data Protection Coordinator – Version 2. Nussbaumer B. (eds.) [60 pages].
Verdoodt, Valerie, Clifford, Damian, Sinibaldi, Giorgio, Cruz, Miguel, Cairo, Ignasi, Van Der Sype, Yung Shin (2015) PREEMPTIVE D3.2 - Legal and ethical implementation report. [43 pages].
Van Der Sype, Yung Shin, Clifford, Damian (2015) MUSES D7.3 Policy recommendations for end-user responsibility. [30 pages].
Clifford, Damian, Spangaro, Alessandro, Ricci, Annarita, Van Der Sype, Yung Shin (2015) ECOSSIAN D7.2 Legal requirements. [39 pages].
Nussbaumer, Barbara, Truskaller, Martina, Koch, Klaus-Michael, Vedder, Anton, Clifford, Damian, Van Der Sype, Yung Shin (2015) ECOSSIAN D9.3 Report from Data Protection Coordinator - Version 1. [22 pages].
Clifford, Damian, Ricci, Annarita, Finocchiaro, Giusella Dolores, Proenca, Luisa, Van Der Sype, Yung Shin, e Silva, Karine (2014) ECOSSIAN D7.1 Analysis of the applicable legal framework. [108 pages].

Case notes & book reviews

Clifford, D., (2015). Book review: Neil Richards, Intellectual privacy. Rethinking civil liberties in the digital age (Oxford University Press 2015). European Data Protection Law Review, 4 (1), 321-325.