Biometrics

Mar 28 2024

Initial Analysis of the new U.S. governance for Federal Agency use of Artificial Intelligence, including biometrics

Today the Biden-Harris Administration published a Memorandum that sets forth how U.S. Federal Agencies and Executive Departments will govern their use of Artificial Intelligence. The OMB memorandum provides an extensive and in some ways surprising articulation of emergent guardrails around modern AI. There are many points of interest to discuss, but the most striking includes the thread of biometrics systems guidance throughout the memorandum and continuing on in the White House Fact Sheet and associated materials. Additionally, the articulation of minimum practices for safety -impacting and rights- impacting AI will likely become important touch points in regulatory discussions in the U.S. and elsewhere. The guidance represents a significant policy shift for the U.S. Federal government, particularly around biometrics.

Feb 13 2024

WPF Executive Director to teach CMU course on Digital Identity in Rwanda, Africa

WPF’s Pam Dixon will be in Kigali, Rwanda to be the lead instructor on a course on digital identity ecosystems as a lecturer for Carnegie Mellon University, as part of their CEE-TP Courses for IT and policy in the developing world. This course, Identity Ecosystems and Digital Transformation: the key technical, legal, and policy considerations

Apr 27 2023

WPF Executive Director to serve as Senior Rapporteur for ID4Africa workshops regarding policy and regulatory challenges for digital identity and privacy and data protection in ID systems

The World Privacy Forum is pleased to announce Executive Director Pam Dixon has been invited to serve as the Senior Special Rapporteur for two workshops at the 2023 ID4Africa Annual General Meeting which will take place in Nairobi, Kenya 23-25 May. ID4Africa is regarded as the single most important gathering of identity experts and authorities in the world. The focus of Dixon’s rapporteur work will include policy and regulatory challenges for digital identity: the African perspective (Workshop 2), and privacy and data protection in identity systems (Workshop 4)…

Sep 16 2022

Identity ecosystems are a central aspect of global digitalization; the principle of Do No Harm must be a policy priority and commitment

Identity is a data-rich resource that acts as a key to connect all levels of emerging digital ecosystems. All forms of ID carry some risk, but digital forms of ID, or “dematerialized ID,” cuts across all sectors and links copious data about individuals, their behaviors, financial status, associates, and potentially even political and religious views. Over time, distinct patterns emerge from the linked data and create new kinds of risks for individuals and groups. As the world becomes increasingly and intensely digitalized, we can expect challenges in the identity space to grow apace unless proactive attention is given to identifying and mitigating the current and future risks.

May 16 2022

ISPI Forum on Digital Transformation, WPF speaker

The Italian Institute for International Political Studies (ISPI) will be holding a High Level Forum on Digital Transformation in connection with OECD. The event will be held 16 May 2022 in hybrid format. WPF will be speaking about what risks exists for consumers arising from illicit use of their personal data, and also approaches for

New Report: Risky Analysis: Assessing and Improving AI Governance Tools

We are pleased to announce the publication of a new WPF report, “Risky Analysis: Assessing and Improving AI Governance Tools.” This report sets out a definition of AI governance tools, documents why and how these tools are critically important for trustworthy AI, and where these tools are around the world. The report also documents problems in some AI governance tools themselves, and suggests pathways to improve AI governance tools and create an evaluative environment to measure their effectiveness. AI systems should not be deployed without simultaneously evaluating the potential adverse impacts of such systems and mitigating their risks, and most of the world agrees about the need to take precautions against the threats posed. The specific tools and techniques that exist to evaluate and measure AI systems for their inclusiveness, fairness, explainability, privacy, safety and other trustworthiness issues — called in the report collectively AI governance tools – can improve such issues. While some AI governance tools provide reassurance to the public and to regulators, the tools too often lack meaningful oversight and quality assessments. Incomplete or ineffective AI governance tools can create a false sense of confidence, cause unintended problems, and generally undermine the promise of AI systems. The report contains rich background details, use cases, potential solutions to the problems discussed in the report, and a global index of AI Governance Tools.
National IDs Around the World — Interactive map

About this Data Visualization: This interactive map displays the presence...
Report: From the Filing Cabinet to the Cloud: Updating the Privacy Act of 1974

This comprehensive report and proposed bill text is focused on the Privacy Act of 1974, an important and early Federal privacy law that applies to the government sector and some contractors. The Privacy Act was written for the 1970s information era -- an era that was characterized by the use of mainframe computers and filing cabinets. Today's digital information era looks much different than the '70s: smart phones are smarter than the old mainframes, and documents are now routinely digitized and stored and perhaps even analyzed in the cloud, among many other changes. The report focuses on why the Privacy Act needs an update that will bring it into this century, and how that could look and work. This work was written by Robert Gellman, and informed by a two-year multi-stakeholder process.