Concord Privacy News: 11/15/23
President Biden’s Executive Order on AI: What It Means for Data Privacy
Last month President Biden issued a comprehensive executive order on safe, secure, and trustworthy artificial intelligence. The order reflects the Biden administration’s desire to make AI more secure and to position the U.S. as a leader in AI policy, especially as other countries attempt AI regulation.
The order is broad and builds on previous actions the President has taken, including work that led to voluntary commitments from 15 leading companies to drive safe, secure, and trustworthy development of AI. It directs a number of actions in six key areas: establishing new standards for AI safety and security, protecting Americans’ privacy, advancing equity and civil rights, standing up for consumers and workers, promoting innovation and competition, and advancing American leadership around the world.
As privacy protection is central to Concord’s mission, we’ve keyed in to the President’s directives in that category. Specifically, he’s calling for:
- Protecting Americans’ privacy by prioritizing federal support for accelerating the development and use of privacy-preserving techniques.
- Strengthening privacy-preserving research and technologies.
- Evaluating how agencies collect and use commercially available information—including information they procure from data brokers—and strengthening privacy guidance for federal agencies to account for AI risks.
- Developing guidelines for federal agencies to evaluate the effectiveness of privacy-preserving techniques, including those used in AI systems.
More details are expected in the coming months, but it is encouraging to see momentum in regulating AI and in protecting data privacy. Concord will keep you updated on the latest developments.
Other Privacy News of Note
California 1st With Law Protecting Children’s Online Privacy
California will be the first state to require online companies to put kids’ safety first by barring them from profiling children or using personal information in ways that could harm children physically or mentally, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Thursday.
“We’re taking aggressive action in California to protect the health and wellbeing of our kids,” Newsom said in a statement announcing that he had signed the bill. He noted that as a father of four, “I’m familiar with the real issues our children are experiencing online.” Read more.
Chrome’s IP Address Protection Initiative Presents New Challenges for Marketers
Google is preparing to test a new feature in Chrome that will allow users to hide their IP addresses by using proxy servers. Initially this will be an opt-in feature like Apple’s Ask App Not to Track. The concern is that IP addresses, like cookies, can be used to track online activity and create persistent user profiles. The logic is that, if cookies are a threat to privacy, IP addresses are too.
IP address protection is nothing new. Just as they have already deprecated cookies, browsers like Firefox and Safari already have some kind of protection in place. But given Chrome’s domination of the browser market, the move will have a significant impact, not least on marketing. Read more.
