Digital Privacy

Dec 10 2021

WPF executive director voted in as member of OECD civil society steering committee

After many years of participating as a civil society delegate at OECD, WPF’s executive director Pam Dixon has been voted onto the steering committee for OECD’s civil society arm, CSISAC. “It is an honor to be voted in by my fellow members of civil society to the CSISAC steering committee, and I am looking forward

Dec 03 2020

New Zealand’s New Privacy Law 2020 is Now in Force

New Zealand has meaningfully updated its privacy law, The Privacy Act 2020, which took force December 1. The new Privacy Act 2020 is a significant advancement of New Zealand’s privacy law, and encompasses numerous changes, including: Data Breach Reporting Obligations: There are new reporting obligations for data breaches. Companies are required to notify the Office

Nov 12 2020

Governing Data for Development: Trends, Challenges, and Opportunities

The World Privacy Forum is pleased to announce its work on a new project with the Center for Global Development (CGD). This project, Governing Data for Development, is led by CGD, with WPF’s Executive Director Pam Dixon as co-chair of the project working group with co-chair and Oxford professor Benno Ndulu, who is also the former Governor of the Central Bank of Tanzania. The project, which has been underway for a year, has produced its first report, which is a scoping report based on interviews with key stakeholders. This blog post, which provides background on the project and links to the first project report, is being jointly posted at WPF and CGD.

Jan 22 2020

Age Appropriate Design: new code of practice regarding online services for children from the UK Information Commissioner

The UK Information Commissioner’s Office has published a new code of practice for online services directed to children, Age appropriate design: A code of practice for online services. The new code sets 15 flexible standards and gives specific explanations of how the GDPR applies to childrens’ online activities and pursuits. The code is not a

Dec 05 2019

World Privacy Forum named as a top ten digital identity influencing organization globally

WPF has been recognized as one of the leading organizations globally influencing privacy, security, inclusion, and fairness in digital identity systems. Goode Intelligence, which produces an annual report on digital identity around the world, has named WPF as a top ten globally influencing organization, as well as ID4Africa, Women in Identity, and others. WPF has

National IDs Around the World — Interactive map

About this Data Visualization: This interactive map displays the presence...
New 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.