FPF in 2022: A Year in Review
As 2022 comes to an end, we wanted to reflect on a year that saw the Future of Privacy Forum (FPF) expand its presence both domestically and around the globe, while producing engaging events, thought-provoking analysis, and insightful publications.
Global Expansion
In 2022, FPF closely followed and advised upon significant developments in Asia, the European Union, Africa, and Latin America. We also discussed privacy and data protection with many of you at key conferences and events across the globe including in Washington, DC, Brussels, Singapore, Istanbul, Tel Aviv, and Rio de Janeiro.
FPF saw its presence in Asia continue to grow as the FPF Asia-Pacific office entered its second year. We introduced expert Josh Lee Kok Thong as Managing Director of FPF’s activities in the region. During FPF Asia-Pacific’s opening, we announced a partnership with the Asian Business Law Institute (ABLI) to support the convergence of data protection regulations and best privacy practices. As part of this partnership, FPF and ABLI published a joint series of comprehensive reports exploring the role and limits of consent in data protection laws and regulations of 14 jurisdictions in the Asia-Pacific region. This months-long dissemination culminated in a detailed comparative report on the requirements for processing personal data and was launched alongside the 58th Asia-Pacific Privacy Authorities Forum hosted by the Personal Data Protection Commission of Singapore.
FPF remains consistently active in the European Union, with several engaging events bringing together the European data privacy community and numerous thought-provoking blogs, reports, and analyses published in 2022. FPF launched its comprehensive report analyzing case-law under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) applied to cases involving automated decision-making and hosted its 6th Annual Brussels Privacy Symposium with the Brussels Privacy Hub of Vrije Universiteit Brussel, an event that officially launched the joint International Observatory on Vulnerable People in Data Protection.
This year, FPF further expanded its global scope to Argentina and Japan with the appointment of two new Senior Fellows, Pablo Palazzi and Takeshige Sugimoto, and to Africa with the inclusion of Policy Analyst, Mercy King’ori, joining the team. We published several thought-provoking reports exploring DPA strategies in Africa, data localization in China, and developments in open banking through a global perspective and launched our popular infographics in Chinese to reach an even larger audience. In addition, our global experts provided analysis on privacy and data protection developments in India, Argentina, Indonesia, and Kenya.
US Legislative Activity
FPF continues to convene industry experts, academics, consumer advocates, and other experts to explore the challenging issues in the data protection and privacy field. Our experts have testified in front of state and national legislative bodies to provide analysis surrounding potential privacy legislation.
2022 saw the introduction of the bipartisan American Data Privacy and Protection Act (ADPPA), with FPF’s Bertram Lee testifying in front of the US House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Commerce supporting Congress’ efforts on the legislation. Experts Bertram Lee and Stacey Gray discussed ADPPA in the context of civil rights and in relation to California’s laws in The Hill and Lawfare editorials respectively. In addition to federal privacy legislation, 2022 also saw the introduction of consumer privacy laws in Utah and Connecticut, joining California, Virginia, and Colorado.
Last month, FPF urged the Federal Trade Commission to prioritize practical rules that clearly define individuals’ rights and companies’ responsibilities in our filed comments to the Commission’s Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. In addition, FPF has submitted written comments regarding draft Colorado and California regulations and with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
For the 12th year in a row, FPF recognized leading privacy research and analytical work with the virtual Privacy Papers for Policymakers Award. The winners spoke about their research in front of an audience of academic, industry, and policy professionals in the field. The event featured keynote speaker Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser who spoke on his approach to fostering conversations in the privacy space that bring together policymakers and academics while ensuring the integrity of the discussions.
Youth & Education Privacy
Federal and state policymakers turned to the protection of children online this year with President Biden notably mentioning it during his State of the Union address. In California, the Age-Appropriate Design Code Act was signed into law. Our Youth & Education experts provided analysis by launching two policy briefs; one of which provides a comprehensive analysis of the law, and the second comparing the California legislation to the United Kingdom’s Age-Appropriate Design Code.
FPF also made a key hire in David Sallay as our Youth & Education Privacy Director. David comes to FPF from the Utah State Board of Education, where he previously served as the Chief Privacy Officer and the Student Privacy Auditor at the Utah State Board of Education, where he worked with schools and districts on implementing Utah’s state student privacy law.
Research Data Sharing and Emerging Technologies
As stakeholders and policymakers become increasingly interested in corporate and academic research data sharing, FPF released “The Playbook: Data Sharing for Research” as a resource laying out best practices for instituting research data-sharing programs between corporations and research institutions. Alongside this, we produced an infographic focused on the benefits, challenges, and opportunities for data sharing in research, including its key players and next steps. We also launched the Ethics and Data Sharing in Research Working Group to receive late-breaking analysis of emerging US legislation affecting research and data.
In 2022, we focused on emerging technologies by producing an infographic highlighting extended reality (XR) technologies, including virtual (VR), mixed (MR), and augmented (AR) reality, by visualizing how XR data flows work and exploring several use cases that these technologies may support. We also introduced a Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs) blog series building on our earlier report with IBM, analyzing BCIs in the context of healthcare and commercial and government use.
The FPF team welcomed many new faces in 2022 building our expertise in several key areas and regions of the world. In addition to Josh Lee Kok Thong as Managing Director of APAC and David Sallay as Director of Youth & Education Privacy, we welcomed Samuel Adams (Ad Tech), Lauren Anderson (Membership), Maria Badillo (Latin America, FPF Fellow), Jamie Gorosh (Youth & Education), Robin Grossfeld (Membership), Mercy King’ori (Africa), Bertram Lee (Artificial Intelligence), Aaron Massey (Ad Tech and Platforms), Dominique Matthews (Membership), Stefania Medrano (Operations), Akosua Osei (Events), Dominic Paulger (APAC), Isabella Perera (Global), Alyssa Rosinski (Business Development), Felicity Slater (US Legislation, FPF Fellow), Jameson Spivack (Immersive Tech), Chloe Suzman (US Legislation), Shea Swauger (Research and Ethics), Adonne Washington (Mobility and Location), Stephanie Wong (US Policy, FPF Fellow), and Jordan Wrigley (Health) to the team. In 2022, we also expanded our scope by introducing new Working Groups focusing on Biometrics, Immersive Technologies, and Youth Privacy.
This is by no means a comprehensive list of all of FPF’s important and engaging work in 2022, but we hope it gives you a sense of our work’s impact on the privacy community and society at large. We believe our success is due to deep engagement with privacy experts in industry, academia, civil society, and government and our belief that collaborating across sectors and disciplines is needed to advance practical safeguards needed for data uses that benefit society.
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On behalf of the entire FPF team, we wish you a very Happy New Year!