Machine Learning

Dec 19 2019

NIST report documents undeniable demographic effects in face recognition systems

WPF Press Release: NIST has issued extensive scientific documentation of demographic effects in face recognition systems in its new report, Face Recognition Vendor Test Part 3: Demographic Effects. The detailed findings in the NIST report are troubling. World Privacy Forum calls on the face recognition industry to accept, acknowledge, and address the new NIST findings, and calls for new multistakeholder work as well as significant safety guardrails.

Nov 12 2019

WPF to testify before NCVHS on emerging privacy concerns in health privacy — Beyond Digitization: Artificial Intelligence, APIs, and health privacy

WPF Executive Director Pam Dixon will testify before the full committee of the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics (NCVHS) regarding emerging privacy concerns in the healthcare environment, including the role of artificial intelligence, patient authorizations, and automated access to patient health information. The NCVHS is the statutory [42 U.S.C. 242k(k)] public advisory body

Jun 15 2018

WPF to speak about AI governance at Brussels multi-stakeholder forum with FTC Commissioner Rohit Chopra and EDPS

WPF’s Pam Dixon will be speaking about AI and governance at the Trans Atlantic Consumer Dialogue (TACD) Annual Multi-stakeholder Forum June 19 in Brussels, Belgium. The panel discussion on AI will include FTC Commissioner Rohit Chopra, as well as Achim Klabunde from the European Data Protection Supervisor’s Office. WPF is a member of the TACD,

Feb 12 2018

Testing out PriBot, the new AI privacy policy analysis chat bot

Today we took the new PriBot privacy policy analyzer and chat bot tool out for a test run. The PriBot chat bot uses AI to analyze privacy policies — many of which are verbally and legally complex — and returns bite-size nuggets of information to those interested. The overall impact of using the chat tool

Jan 27 2017

World Economic Forum Global Risk Report identifies cyberattacks and data theft as significant economic risks

The Global Risk Report 2017 from the World Economic Forum cites threats to global economic wellbeing ranging from natural disasters and large scale involuntary migration to — this year — risks arising from a “growing cyberdependency.” Specific risks the report calls out in this category are cyberattacks, data fraud and theft, critical infrastructure breakdown, and “adverse

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.