Federal Council sets up group of experts

The appointment of the group of experts by Federal Councillor Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf is in implementation of a motion by Council of States member Paul Rechsteiner (13.3841). The task of the expert group will be to answer questions that arise in connection with big data, data processing and data security, as well as the risks and opportunities of the rapid development in information and communications technology (ICT), taking into account the overall societal dimension. On this basis, recommendations are to be drawn up for the attention of the Federal Council. The panel's work is limited to three years.

The expert group is composed as follows:

President: Brigitta M. Gadient, (a.National Councillor)

Science/Research:

• Prof. Dr. Dirk Helbing, Professor ETH Zurich
• Dr. Matthias Kaiserswerth, former Director IBM Research Center, Managing Director Hasler Foundation
• Prof. Dr. Nicolas Gisin, Professor University of Geneva
• Prof. Dr. Adrian Perrig, Professor ETH Zurich
• Prof. Jean-Pierre Hubaux, Professor ETH Lausanne

Law:

• Dr. Ursula Widmer, President Information Security Society (ISSS)
• Prof. Dr. Rolf Weber, Professor University of Zurich

Economy: Thomas Pletscher, Member of the Executive Board Economiesuisse

Communication/Society: Prof. Dr. Regula Hänggli, Professor University of Fribourg

Administration:

• Prof. Dr. Luzius Mader, Deputy Director Federal Office of Justice
• Peter Fischer, Delegate Federal IT Steering Committee
• Hanspeter Thür, Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner

The expert group "Future of data processing and data security" will start its work in the next few weeks, it is further announced.