This roundtable discussion, Digital Trade Rules, Digital Policy Norms, and Consequences for Economic Development. is hosted by The Center for Global Development as part of its ongoing project on Governing Data for Development, of which WPF’s Pam Dixon is a co-chair. The participants will explore digital trade dynamics, data governance and privacy, economic development, and cross-border data

As vaccination campaigns gear up around the world, talk has turned to the logistics and ethics of providing people with vaccination certificates or, for purposes of travel, vaccination “passports.” This podcast, hosted by the Center for Global Development’s Anit Mukherjee, with Pam Dixon and Camilla Ravnbøl, focuses in on the key aspects of vaccine certificate systems and their implications.

WPF’s Executive Director Pam Dixon will be moderating a Center for Global Development roundtable May 20 to discuss data governance models from the perspective of low and middle income countries. This is part of her ongoing work as co-chair of the Governing Data for Development project working group. Michael Pisa, CGD Policy Fellow and lead for

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.

The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has withdrawn a proposed rulemaking related to biometric collection, USCIS Docket No. USCIS-2019-0007. Last year, WPF urged DHS to withdraw this biometric rulemaking because the rulemaking lacked scientific facts and basis. WPF also found that the DHS biometric proposal avoided discussion of the new barriers it would have created