Identity

Remarks of Pam Dixon at the First Digital Trust Convention held at OECD in Paris; WPF co-sponsor

The first Digital Trust Convention was held in Paris at OECD Headquarters on 15 November, 2024. This event addressed the problems of how to establish trust in people and information in digital spaces, including the challenges created by synthetic content generated or impacted by AI. WPF co-sponsored the event, and Executive Director Pam Dixon was in Paris to participate in person. Her remarks focused on: solutions must do no harm, cautions around inappropriate uses of digital ID, and respect for socio-technical contexts.

WPF mini documentary on challenges in ID systems - in collaboration with ID4Africa

WPF launched a mini-documentary about problems in identity systems on 17 November, 2021 in collaboration with ID4Africa. Digital identity systems are generally accepted as positive tools for social good. Nevertheless, they can pose several dangers and cause significant concerns. This mini-documentary takes viewers on a tour around the world to ...

National IDs Around the World — Interactive map

About this Data Visualization : This interactive map displays the presence of National IDs and electronic IDs, including biometric IDs, in countries globally. The raw dataset used to create the map data originates from the World Bank (See data sourcing below). This dataset covers high, middle and lower income countries. ...

Vaccine Certificates: a podcast with Anit Mukherjee, WPF's Pam Dixon, and Camilla Ravnbøl

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.

Gender Matters in Identity Systems: How an ID4Africa Livecast Broke Important New Ground in Gender and Privacy 

Recently, ID4Africa held an extremely compelling and meticulously researched livecast on the issue of gender and identity systems, with good discussions that also touched on privacy in this context. The livecast boasted an excellent roster of experts, all of whom are active work in the field. Each presented well-substantiated, groundtruthed research and insight about the myriad ways that how identity systems mediate gender matter a great deal. The cumulative effect was eye-opening. 

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.

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 ...

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 ...

WPF and Brookings co-hosting Biometric Roundtable at International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners

The World Privacy Forum and the Brookings Institution will co-host a Biometric Roundtable Wednesday, October 23 at the International Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners’ Conference in Tirana, Albania. Cam Kerry of Brookings and Pam Dixon of WPF will co-moderate the discussion. The purpose of the Biometrics Roundtable is to promote ...

Roundtable of African Data Protection Authorities (RADPA): Report now public

The first Roundtable of African Data Protection Authorities was a wide-ranging and vibrant roundtable conversation on the status and response to privacy risks in identity systems on the continent of Africa. The dialogue focused on data protection and privacy experiences, challenges, risks, and solutions in identity ecosystems, including biometrics. It was an extraordinary, first-of-its-kind event, and the DPAs had notable experiences and thoughts to share. These thoughts are captured in the Rapporteur’s report, which was written by WPF’s Pam Dixon.

WPF calls on Secretary of Homeland Security to provide formal notice and comment and address substantive concerns regarding the CBP biometric entry and exit program

The World Privacy Forum sent a detailed letter (PDF, 18 pages) September 18, 2018 to the Secretary of Homeland security outlining our substantive concerns regarding the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Transportation Security Administration (TSA) biometric [1]entry and exit program. The World Privacy ...

A Failure to Do No Harm: India's Aadhaar biometric ID program

WPF has conducted original research on India's Aadhaar, a national biometric ID system, including field research in India during 2010-2014. WPF has published the original research in a peer-reviewed journal, Nature-Springer, and in Harvard-based Journal of Technology Science. The research found that systemic challenges to data protection and privacy exist in the Aadhaar system, challenges which do have potential remedies. Key lessons can be learned for both the US and the EU as biometric systems grow in popularity.

National IDs Over Time: Interactive chart

About this Data Visualization : This interactive chart displays the chronological implementation of National IDs in countries globally, from 1850 to 2017. The raw dataset used to create the chart originates from the World Bank (See data sourcing below). This dataset covers high, middle and lower income countries. How to ...

Public Comments: WPF files comments on proposed national identity standard, recommends changes

The World Privacy Forum filed technical comments on the IDPV National Standard Project today, offering key privacy recommendations on the proposed standard, Requirements and Implementation Guidelines for Assertion, Resolution, Evidence, and Verification of Personal Identity, version 5.3.1. WPF analyzed the proposed standard carefully, and sees the need for several changes to the standard to improve consumer privacy. In our comments, the intent is to help create a standard that increases security, trustworthiness of identities, and identity credentials while protecting individual privacy.

How unique are you?

How unique are you? We played with a data privacy tool today here at WPF that showed us if the combination of our birthdate and zip code made us statistically unique. The more unique you are, the more identifiable you are in a sea of supposedly "anonymous" data. This tool was developed by Dr. LaTanya Sweeney at Harvard's Data Privacy Lab, and using it will tell you how easily you can be identified from records that may not even have your name on them.

WPF Asks Presidential Commission to Protect Genetic Privacy

Genetic Privacy | Bioethics -- WPF filed comments with the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethics today urging the Commission to recognize the need for enhanced genetic privacy protections in a digital world. WPF noted that "The increasing identifiability of genetic data presents major privacy issues for research activities that must be acknowledged and addressed." WPF suggested four key ways that Certificate of Confidentiality programs could be enhanced for privacy protection, and urged the Commission to speak out about the importance of protecting patient privacy in research activities involving genetic information. "The Commission should advocate providing patients with reasonable controls over research uses of their data as electronic records develop and spread throughout the health care system." Public comments may be submitted to the Commission until May 25, 2012.

WPF opposes censorship bills; supports right to create and use anonymization tools to protect privacy

Stop SOPA & PIPA ---- The World Privacy Forum is deeply concerned about the profound, far-reaching privacy consequences of two bills, SOPA and PIPA. The bills have many negative aspects. In terms of the privacy impacts, one of the serious consequences is that the right to create and use anonymization ...

Digital Signage Privacy Principles for Consumers: Nation's leading consumer groups release new privacy principles

Digital Signage Privacy Principles -- The nation's leading consumer and privacy groups released a set of baseline consumer privacy principles to be included in digital signage networks. The principles were released at the Digital Signage Expo in Las Vegas, Nevada, where World Privacy Forum executive director Pam Dixon spoke about the principles to a large group of digital signage industry professionals.