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Carsten A. Kociok

Carsten Kociok is a partner in the Technology, Financial Services and Data Privacy Practice in Berlin and Co-Head of Greenberg Traurig’s global Fintech Group. He advises national and international clients across all industries, including financial services, information technology, artificial intelligence, ecommerce, media, health care, telecoms, retail and real estate, on a wide variety of complex commercial and regulatory matters.

Carsten is a leading technology lawyer, ranked consistently in Band 1 for Fintech Legal in Germany since 2020. He has in-depth and wide-ranging experience in the areas of privacy and cybersecurity, payments law, financial services, e-money products, blockchain technology, and financial and banking regulation, as well as in artificial intelligence regulation - including compliance with the EU AI Act - and the integration of AI technologies into existing software systems.

Carsten regularly assists clients in licensing projects and audit proceedings with financial regulators and advises on the contractual and regulatory aspects of developing, implementing and operating financial technology products and transactions.

On the data privacy side, Carsten counsels clients on complex data-driven business models and regulatory matters, including on international data transfers, data privacy compliance, monetization of data, artificial intelligence, litigation, cybersecurity and data breach response.

Carsten regularly lectures and publishes on various FinTech and data privacy topics. Prior to joining the firm, Carsten worked at Olswang Germany for eight years and in the Capital Transaction Practice Group of an international law firm in New York.

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Data typically is needed to train and fine-tune modern artificial intelligence models. AI can use data – including personal information – to recognize patterns and predict results.

Companies that utilize personal information to train an AI may either be acting as a controller or a processor depending on the degree of discretion that they exercise…

The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) applies to two types of entities – “controllers” and “processors.” 

A “controller” refers to an entity that “determines the purposes and means” of how personal information will be processed.[1] Determining the “means” of processing refers to deciding “how” information will be processed.[2] That does not necessitate…

All contracts that used the traditional Standard Contractual Clauses must be updated and repapered by 27 December 2022. To help companies comply with the deadline, Greenberg Traurig’s Data Privacy & Cybersecurity Group has compiled a 90-page guide explaining how to apply the new Standard Contractual Clauses in over 40 different transfer scenarios – ranging from…

After an extended sunset period, time to replace the “old” SCCs runs out on Dec. 27, 2022. After that date, the old SCCs will no longer legalize data transfers to countries outside the European Economic Area (EEA). To avoid compliance risks associated with illegal transfers of personal data, any old SCCs should be updated to…

The following is part of Greenberg Traurig’s ongoing series analyzing cross-border data transfers in light of the new Standard Contractual Clauses approved by the European Commission in June 2021.

Visual Description and Implications
  • The EDPB has taken the position that a data subject “cannot be considered a controller or processor,”[1] and, as a result,

…

The following is part of Greenberg Traurig’s ongoing series analyzing cross-border data transfers in light of the new Standard Contractual Clauses approved by the European Commission in June 2021.

Visual Description and Implications
Transfers from a European Data Subject: Data Subject→Controller (US)→Processor (US)
  • The EDPB has taken the position that a data subject “cannot be considered a controller or processor,”1 and, as a result,

…

The following is part of Greenberg Traurig’s ongoing series analyzing cross-border data transfers in light of the new Standard Contractual Clauses approved by the European Commission in June 2021.

Visual Description and Implications
Transfers from a European Data Subject: Data Subject→Controller (US)→Controller (non-EEA)
  • The EDPB has taken the position that a data subject “cannot be considered a controller or processor,”1 and, as a result,

…

The following is part of Greenberg Traurig’s ongoing series analyzing cross-border data transfers in light of the new Standard Contractual Clauses approved by the European Commission in June 2021.

Visual Description and Implications
Transfers from a European Data Subject: Data Subject→Controller (US)→Controller (US)
  • The EDPB has taken the position that a data subject “cannot be considered a controller or processor,”[1] and, as a result,

…

The following is part of Greenberg Traurig’s ongoing series analyzing cross-border data transfers in light of the new Standard Contractual Clauses approved by the European Commission in June 2021.

Visual Description and Implications
Transfers from a European Data Subject - Data Subject→Controller (US)
  • The EDPB has taken the position that a data subject “cannot be considered a controller or processor.”1 As a result, the

…

The following is part of Greenberg Traurig’s ongoing series analyzing cross-border data transfers in light of the new Standard Contractual Clauses approved by the European Commission in June 2021.

Visual Description and Implications
Other Transfers from EEA Controller - Controller A (EEA)→Employee of Controller A (non-EEA)
  • Background. Company A is a European legal entity that does not have a legal presence in Country Q.  Company A has

…