Public Policy

The World Privacy Forum has filed comments to the U.S. Office of Management and Budget in response to its Request for Feedback on Draft Guidance: Broadening Public Participation and Community Engagement with the Federal Government. WPF made three specific suggestions to OMB regarding how Privacy Act notices might be managed in a way that facilitates better feedback from those interested specifically in Privacy Act of 1974 notices, which have meaningful bearing on matters relating to data governance, privacy, and data protection.

The World Privacy Forum has filed detailed comments to the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in response to its Request for Information on Privacy Impact Assessments. Specifically, OMB requested information about how the U.S. Federal government should update or adjust its requirements for Privacy Impact Assessments (PIAs) in regards to changes to data ecosystems brought about by Artificial Intelligence (AI). WPF provided substantive recommendations regarding administrative provisions of the Privacy Act, scalable automated AI governance tools for privacy and trustworthy AI, ensuring nimble processes for privacy and AI assessments, and ensuring balanced, skillful socio-legal-technical decisionmaking.

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 European Commission has proposed the creation of a new European Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority, HERA. WPF provided comments regarding the proposal, urging the Commission to ensure from the outset that HERA will fulfill its mission with a focus on data interoperability and will include specific data governance and protection measures that will analyze

Executive Director Pam Dixon gave a one hour webinar 4 May 2020 on global contact tracing apps and technology focusing on case studies in the US, UK, India, South Korea, Singapore, Australia, and other jurisdictions. Recommendations and lessons learned are included, as well as audience questions. Event: Festival of Identity Free Webinar Series Webinar: Proportionate