Rob van Eijk
Former Dutch DPA · Senior Fellow, Future of Privacy Forum · Quoted in NYT, Bloomberg, POLITICO
Founder, Blaeu Privacy Response Team · LinkedIn · ORCID
Through Team Blaeu, I advise in-house legal and public affairs teams at Fortune 500 companies, law firms, and regulatory bodies on EU privacy and AI regulation, working solo or with specialist partners depending on the engagement. A PhD on Real Time Bidding and nine years at the Dutch DPA inform how the work gets done.
My recent work includes expert testimony in data protection proceedings, personal data qualification assessments under GDPR for multinational clients, and advising regulatory bodies on Privacy-Enhancing Technologies (PETs) as protective measures.
From regulatory strategy and enforcement defence to AI Act red-teaming — I work hands-on with clients across adtech, fintech, health data, and the public sector.
I translate how adtech auctions, AI models, and tracking systems actually work into language that holds up in court. Having spent nine years in an enforcement role at the Dutch DPA, I know what regulators look for and what they tend to miss.
Your risk classifications and technical documentation need to survive national authority scrutiny. I stress-test them the way an enforcer would, because I've been on that side of the table.
From GDPR personal data qualifications to AI Act governance frameworks, I shape compliance strategies based on direct experience with how European regulators investigate, decide, and enforce.
Fifteen years of hands-on experience inside regulatory institutions, international advisory boards, and enforcement proceedings.
What I find most rewarding is linking how policy experts see technology with how engineers describe it. My ambition is to help organizations build with the principles of transparency and purpose limitation in mind.
"As head of Private Sector Oversight at the Dutch Data Protection Authority (Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens), I enjoyed working with Rob for many years. He is analytically strong, thoughtful and very diplomatic. He has great knowledge at the intersection of privacy and technology and knows how to connect and relate these worlds like no other. His dissertation on Real Time Bidding is the exemplary example of this. Finally, but also very important, Rob is just an incredibly nice and pleasant colleague that I wish everyone on his team."
Udo Oelen
Former Head of Private Sector Oversight, Dutch Data Protection Authority (Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens); Secretary of the Board, TNO
"I had the chance to work with Rob while I was at CNIL and we collaborated on several projects related to online tracking. Rob has a comprehensive view of the complex ecosystem that is the online advertising industry and also manages to know all the technical and legal details. Rob identifies the key challenges and successfully explains this highly complex topic to non-experts by providing useful examples. He can also design tools and write concise code to implement them."
Vincent Toubiana
Head of LINC (Digital Innovation Lab), CNIL — Commission Nationale de l'Informatique et des Libertés
Selected engagements and media.
Panel moderation examining whether regulatory frameworks can effectively address the evolving online tracking landscape. Discussion covered the Digital Omnibus proposal, ePrivacy Directive consent principles, and the emerging challenge of AI agents consenting on behalf of users.
Panel moderation at CPDP Brussels with speakers from Google, OECD, and the European Commission on how Privacy-Enhancing Technologies can bridge the adoption gap between regulatory requirements and business practice.
Keynote moderation of OECD roundtable on emerging consent practices in the digital ecosystem, Paris. Discussion focused on the evolution of consent technologies and their impact on digital privacy frameworks across OECD member countries.
FPF Brussels issue brief on regulatory and technical challenges at the intersection of AI and data protection, co-authored following a multi-stakeholder roundtable with technologists and policy experts.
Fifteen years in data protection. Available for your next engagement.
Get in touchEngagements start with a scoping call. Most matters on fixed fee or retainer.