On Friday, 27 June 2014, Foreign Minister Steinmeier will speak at the opening event of the transatlantic cyber dialogue at the Federal Foreign Office.

Foreign Minister Steinmeier launched this German-American initiative together with his US counterpart, John Kerry. Under the title “Ensuring Security and Freedom” more than 100 participants from the spheres of politics, government, business and civil society representing both sides of the Atlantic will come together for the first time to discuss issues concerning our digital future, including the difficult balance between freedom and the protection of privacy and between security and business opportunities.

As a high-ranking participant from the US side, John Podesta will be the second keynote speaker alongside Foreign Minister Steinmeier. In the course of the debate on reforming the NSA, he was personally tasked with drawing up a report on “Big Data and Privacy” by US President Barack Obama. Podesta’s report, which was presented in April, contains many recommendations on what reforms should look like, including a proposal on extending US provisions on privacy protection to non-US citizens.

Following the two keynote speeches, prominent guests such as Wolfgang Ischinger, Chairman of the Munich Security Conference, James A. Lewis, Director at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Gesche Joost, German Digital Champion for the EU Digital Agenda, Cameron Kerry from the Brookings Institution, Julie Brill, Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission and Viktor Mayer-Schönberger, professor at the Oxford Internet Institute, will exchange views with the two cyber policy commissioners from Germany and the United States, Dirk Brengelmann and Christopher Painter. In their discussion they will focus on the topics “Big Data, Security and Privacy”, “Economic Innovation” and “International Cyber Cooperation”.

You can join in the debate via Twitter using #cyberdialogue.