Consumer Tips

Oct 15 2017

Top Ten Opt Outs: Updates

We have updated a popular page at World Privacy Forum, our Top Ten Opt Outs. This page has been in publication since 2007. Today, we treat the Top Ten Opt Outs as a living document, and update it frequently. If you have questions about any of the opt outs, please contact us, and we will

Jul 18 2017

FBI issues rare alert warning parents of privacy risks with smart toys

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) issued a rare alert to parents about “smart toys,” that is, those that connect to WiFi, and may contain microphones, sensors, and other information-gathering capacities. The alert states that these kinds of toys could pose risks to childrens’ privacy and safety. The alert, issued 17 July, 2017, states: “Smart

May 23 2017

Updated Top Ten Opt Outs for 2017 & 10 year anniversary of Top Ten Opt Outs

Our Top Ten Opt Outs is one of our most popular consumer guides. In it, you can see a short list of the most important privacy opt outs available to you today; we’ve curated the opt-outs and made things simple so you don’t have to wander through a list of hundreds of choices. We’re pleased to

Jun 06 2016

New updates to our Top Ten Opt Out Tips for Consumers

We have updated our popular Top Ten Opt Outs page for consumers. All of the links are fresh, and we have updated the text where it had gotten stale. I am frequently asked which of the opt outs is the most important. Really, that will depend on what is important for you. In general, though,

Mar 23 2016

Risk indicators for senior financial fraud and abuse: new red flags

Elder financial abuse is a terrible crime, and it has not gotten nearly the attention it deserves. Today the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued a important report to financial institutions about what they can do to spot this issue. The World Privacy Forum has testified about senior identity theft — including financial and medical

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.