Maria Paz Canales
Head of Policy and Advocacy
mariapaz@gp-digital.org
Maria Paz oversees the development of insight and expertise to support GPD’s team and projects. Her particular focus areas are data protection, artificial intelligence, freedom of expression, competition and intellectual property.
Previously, she co-founded and served as Executive Director at Derechos Digitales. She holds a Master’s Degree with specialisation in Law and Technology from the University of California, Berkeley.
Explore their work
30 Jun 2026
Report
Human Rights Impact Assessment for Digital Public Infrastructure: A Framework
GPD has developed a framework to help stakeholders identify, assess, and address the human rights and rule of law impacts of Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) design and implementation. The framework offers an adaptable model and methodology for understanding how people and communities interact with DPI systems, identifying risks and designing…
18 Jun 2026
Blog post
Away from blanket access bans and toward more thoughtful approaches
A growing number of governments are turning their attention to the risks social media poses to children and adolescents. In the UK, proposals to restrict under-16s’ access to platforms and under-18s’ access to specific features reflect mounting concern over online harms – from exposure to harmful content to…
10 Mar 2026
Blog post
The AI Governance Void: How Do We Escape the Unilateral Power Trap?
As the AI policy community returned to business as usual following the India AI Impact Summit two weeks ago, GPD – like many civil society groups – left with a sense of unease. Caught between the tech industry’s growing embrace of the language of “ responsible, transparent, and…