Pam Dixon on Wisconsin NPR: Who’s tracking you as you shop? (And how?)

Retail privacy | Executive director Pam Dixon will be on Wisconsin NPR at 6 am Central Tuesday, July 30 to discuss the privacy issues consumers face with the growing sophistication of consumer retail tracking technology in stores. “Most people do not realize that as they shop, retailers are increasingly using a variety of tracking techniques ranging from digital signage with cameras to technology that tracks the movement of their mobile phones over time,” said Pam Dixon. “In our research, we have found some very large stores using these technologies, but it is rare for a store to provide notification to consumers, and rarer still to let consumers opt out — or better yet, opt in to this technology.”

Show web site: http://wpr.org/cardin/

More information about this issue: WPF’s report about retail tracking, The One Way Mirror Society

From the One Way Mirror Society:

“New forms of sophisticated digital signage networks are being deployed widely by retailers and others
in both public and private spaces. From simple people-counting sensors mounted on doorways to
sophisticated facial recognition cameras mounted in flat video screens and end-cap displays, digital
signage technologies are gathering increasing amounts of detailed information about consumers, their
behaviors, and their characteristics.

These technologies are quickly becoming ubiquitous in the offline world, and there is little if any
disclosure to consumers that information about behavioral and personal characteristics is being
collected and analyzed to create highly targeted advertisements, among other things. In the most
sophisticated digital sign networks, for example, individuals watching a video screen will be shown
different information based on their age bracket, gender, or ethnicity.

While most consumers understand a need for security cameras, few expect that the video screen they
are watching, the kiosk they are typing on, or the game billboard they are interacting with is watching
them while gathering copious images and behavioral and demographic information. This is creating a
one-way-mirror society with no notice or opportunity for consumers to consent to being monitored in
retail, public, and other spaces or to consent to having their behavior analyzed for marketing and profit.”
… more here.

Posted July 30, 2013 in

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

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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.