Data Ethics

Sep 08 2023

Announcing Senior Ethics and AI Fellow, Emmi Bane

8 September 2023 The World Privacy Forum is pleased to announce the appointment of Senior Ethics and AI Fellow, Emmi Bane. Emmi has a deep foundation in the construction of consent ecosystems, and is proficient in both their technical implementation and the accompanying policy analysis and considerations. At WPF, her forthcoming research, writing, and analysis

Dec 12 2022

WPF and ADC Launch joint report on the Twin Transition at the OECD Ministerial

13 December, 2022 Gran Canarias, Spain The World Privacy Forum and the Argentina-based Asociación por los Derechos Civiles (ADC) today launched the first report in a project on the Twin Transition, green and digital. WPF Executive Director Pam Dixon will present the report, which is global in scope, to at the OECD Ministerial meeting today

Oct 04 2021

WPF presenting at UN World Data Forum High-Level Plenary

WPF’s Executive Director Pam Dixon will be presenting at a High-Level Plenary Session at the UN World Data Forum Tuesday, 5 October on a panel focused on Trust in Data: balancing quality, privacy and transparency. The matter of trust is at the heart of any information system and it has long been a preoccupation of the data community.

Sep 15 2020

WPF to discuss COVID-19 lessons learned and challenges ahead at OECD – Global Privacy Assembly Workshop

WPF Executive Director Pam Dixon will be presenting at an OECD and Global Privacy Assembly workshop on the risks, challenges, and potential solutions regarding the intersection of COVID-19 and the uses of identity in a global public health crisis. Event details: COVID-19 and privacy virtual Workshop on “The road to recovery: Lessons learned and challenges ahead”, hosted

Sep 03 2020

Expanding Solutions to Address the Risks of Face Recognition Systems

Today we are publishing the first of a series of discussion papers regarding face recognition and biometrics. The ideas in this paper will be discussed in the ID4Africa live cast, Spotlight on Face Recognition. Too often, discussions about what to do about the risks of face recognition have lacked the kinds of specific protections for

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.
COVID-19 and HIPAA: HHS’s Troubled Approach to Waiving Privacy and Security Rules for the Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic strained the U.S. health ecosystem in numerous ways, including putting pressure on the HIPAA privacy and security rules. The Department of Health and Human Services adjusted the privacy and security rules for the pandemic through the use of statutory and administrative HIPAA waivers. While some of the adjustments are appropriate for the emergency circumstances, there are also some meaningful and potentially unwelcome privacy and security consequences. At an appropriate time, the use of HIPAA waivers as a response to health care emergencies needs a thorough review. This report sets out the facts, identifies the issues, and proposes a roadmap for change.