Privacy network expands global participation and cooperation opportunities.
In its annual report, an international network whose objective is to promote cross-border cooperation in data protection and privacy enforcement has announced its expansion to include 59 agencies, while launching new and innovative cooperation tools.
2016: Launching New Tools for Cooperation
The GPEN Committee is pleased to issue the third GPEN annual report.
In the year 2016, GPEN focused on creating the Network of Networks in order to strengthen GPEN’s ties with other networks to promote and support enforcement of privacy laws.
A few highlights:
● We further developed the Network of Networks
● We gathered for face-to-face meetings in Manchester and in Marrakesh to discuss enforcement cooperation experience and practices.
November 3, 2025
More than thirty data protection and privacy authorities from around the world will examine websites and mobile applications commonly used by children as part of the 2025 Global Privacy Enforcement Network privacy sweep taking place this week.
Media release from the GPEN Committee
1 April 2015
The Global Privacy Enforcement Network (GPEN) released its annual report for 2014 today highlighting an increased size and level of participation and substantial progress towards its enforcement cooperation goals.
(French follows)
GPEN Sweep finds majority of websites and mobile apps use deceptive design to influence privacy choices
July 9, 2024
A global privacy sweep that examined more than 1,000 websites and mobile applications (apps) has found that nearly all of them employed one or more deceptive design patterns that made it difficult for users to make privacy-protective decisions.
Nearly half of regulators made a change to their regulatory approach during the pandemic, according to research carried out by the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for the Global Privacy Enforcement Network (GPEN).
‘Resetting Privacy’ looked at how and whether privacy enforcement and consumer protection authorities have changed their approach to regulation and enforcement during the COVID-19 pandemic, and whether they plan to ‘reset’ their approach as it subsides.
Following international intervention by consumer protection agencies from 27 countries that are members of the International Consumer Protection and Enforcement Network (ICPEN), Google announced that app providers will be required to indicate on the Google Play Store what personal data each app keeps and potentially shares about its users.
GPEN Sweep 2017 - International enforcement operation finds website privacy notices are too vague and generally inadequate
The following press release has been created by the UK Information Commissioner's Office as 2017 Sweep lead. Links to press releases issued by participants can be found at the bottom of this page.
Organisations need to be more open, honest and transparent in their online privacy notices about how they handle people’s personal data, an international study has found.
The Global Privacy Enforcement Network (GPEN) has conducted an annual intelligence gathering operation, which looked at how well organisations have implemented the core concepts of accountability into their own internal privacy policies and programmes.
The joint study, known as the `GPEN sweep' is carried out by data protection regulators across the globe.
Below you will find links to the press releases of some of the 25 privacy enforcement authorities that participated in the 2016 GPEN Privacy Sweep on Internet of Things, communicating their results from, and perspectives on, this fourth annual initiative.
List of Press Releases
United Kingdom Information Commissioner's Office
Media release by the GPEN Committee
1 November 2014
September 21, 2010
Thirteen privacy enforcement agencies around the world have joined forces to launch the “Global Privacy Enforcement Network” (GPEN), a network designed to facilitate cross-border cooperation in the enforcement of privacy laws. In developing this network, the participating agencies recognized the need for greater international cooperation in this area. In the Action Plan launching the network, the founding privacy enforcement authorities stressed that “it is important that government authorities charged with enforcing domestic privacy laws strengthen their understanding of different privacy enforcement regimes as well as their capacities for cross-border cooperation.”