Dr Maria Helen Murphy presented her paper, “The protection of privacy and the continued role of human rights: Considering the smart city” at the BILETA 2019 Conference in April. The theme of this year’s conference was “Back to the futures: law without frontiers?” and it was hosted by Queen’s University Belfast. Dr Murphy’s paper considered the vibrant debate on the best means of protecting privacy in the present social and economic structure and the increasingly prominent role of ethics in the public discourse. While acknowledging the contribution of such discussions, the paper expressed some caution regarding the eagerness of many large internet services to adopt the badge of ethics, to the apparent detriment of legal compliance and external accountability. While ethical consideration is vital, Dr Murphy’s paper argued for the continued importance of human rights law in the modern data processing and surveillance environment. Specifically, Dr Murphy’s paper contended that the ECHR has an important role to play in the evaluation of the ‘smart city’.