International Privacy

Sep 21 2017

WPF’s schedule at the 39th International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners

The World Privacy Forum will be speaking several times during the International Conference of Data Protection & Privacy Commissioners in Hong Kong; here’s the schedule, below; we look forward to meeting or catching up with those of you attending, please come by and say hello. Monday 25 September: European Data Protection Supervisor side meeting/conference, WPF

Aug 29 2017

A Failure to Do No Harm: India’s Aadhaar biometric ID program

WPF has conducted original research on India’s Aadhaar, a national biometric ID system, including field research in India during 2010-2014. WPF has published the original research in a peer-reviewed journal, Nature-Springer, and in Harvard-based Journal of Technology Science. The research found that systemic challenges to data protection and privacy exist in the Aadhaar system, challenges which do have potential remedies. Key lessons can be learned for both the US and the EU as biometric systems grow in popularity.

Aug 24 2017

A big win for privacy in India

India’s Supreme Court has ruled in a unanimous decision that privacy is a fundamental right under Article 21 of India’s constitution. This is a landmark decision for India, and it was decided by a full bench of nine judges. The decision comes at a time when India’s national biometric ID program, Aadhaar, has been

Sep 29 2016

WPF asks Office of Management and Budget to re-evaluate plan to request social media account information on entry/exit forms; requests pilot study

The World Privacy Forum filed comments today with the US Office of Management and Budget regarding a US Customs and Border Protection agency proposal to request social media account information from arriving and departing travelers on entry/exit forms. Earlier this year, WPF wrote comments to CBP directly and urged the agency to drop its proposal to request social media profile information from travelers on these key entry/exit forms due to procedural and policy concerns.

Aug 22 2016

WPF urges US Customs and Border Protection to change course on asking for social media accounts

The World Privacy Forum filed comments today with the US Customs and Border Protection agency regarding a proposal to request social media account information from arriving and departing travelers on entry/exit forms. WPF urged CBP to drop its proposal to request social media profile information from travelers on these key entry/exit forms. The entry forms in question

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.