Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs) are crucial for safeguarding individual privacy while enabling socially beneficial research, data sharing, and advancements in sectors that collect or use sensitive data. As AI systems increasingly rely on vast amounts of data, PETs like differential privacy, homomorphic encryption, federated learning, zero-knowledge proofs, and even model contract clauses can help ensure that personal data remains confidential and secure. This is vital not only for protecting individual rights but also for earning and maintaining public trust in technologies that use data about people.
Ethically implementing PETs is also essential. PETs must be designed and deployed to protect marginalized groups and avoid practices that may appear to be privacy-preserving, but actually exploit sensitive data or undermine privacy. In addition, clear policy guidelines on the deployment of PETs are necessary to help make sound business cases for their use in industry. If PETs are ethically integrated into research and business practices, and if global regulators have an opportunity to support their appropriate deployment, there is enormous potential for increasing technological innovation and societal benefits while upholding privacy and public trust.
FPF supports the development of PETs, convenes experts from around the world to deploy best practices, and provides in-depth analysis of emerging technologies and their policy implications. FPF also leads the National Science Foundation and Department of Energy-funded Research Coordination Network for the use of PETs to advance socially beneficial data sharing and protect people’s privacy as data is increasingly used to train AI models. FPF also facilitates a Global PETs Network of regulators who are interested in the lawful and ethical implementation of these tools.
FPF at 10: Envisioning the Future of Privacy
This year, Future of Privacy Forum is celebrating our tenth anniversary as a catalyst for privacy leadership and scholarship. In recognition of this milestone, we will host an anniversary celebration on April 30 and release a report on rising privacy issues. We also are publishing a series of blog posts over the next several weeks […]
Digital Data Flows Masterclass: Emerging Technologies
Digital Data Flows Masterclass is a year-long educational program designed for regulators, policymakers, and staff seeking to better understand the data-driven technologies at the forefront of data protection law & policy. The program will feature experts on machine learning, biometrics, connected cars, facial recognition, online advertising, encryption, and other emerging technologies. Sign up to receive email […]
Learning from Europe but looking beyond for privacy law
FPF’s CEO, Jules Polonetsky, recently published an opinion piece in The Hill that discussed the need for comprehensive federal privacy legislation.
PrivacyNews.TV
FPF uses Facebook Live to discuss timely topics. Watch some of our previous videos here and be sure to tune in live for our next discussion!
Empirical Research in the Internet of Things, Mobile Privacy, and Digital Advertising
In the world of consumer privacy, including the Internet of Things (IoT), mobile data, and advertising technologies (“Ad Tech”), it can often be difficult to measure real-world impact and conceptualize individual harms and benefits. Fortunately, academic researchers are increasingly focusing on these issues, leading to impressive scholarship from institutions such as the Princeton Center for Information Technology Policy (CITP), Carnegie Mellon University School of Computer Science, UC Berkeley School of Information, and many others, including non-profits and think tanks.
The Top 10 (& Federal Actions): Student Privacy News (November 2017-February 2018)
The Future of Privacy Forum tracks student privacy news very closely, and shares relevant news stories with our newsletter subscribers. Approximately every month, we post “The Top 10,” a blog with our top student privacy stories.
Responsible Research and Privacy Practices Workshop generates new research opportunities
On November 2-3, 2017, the Future of Privacy Forum’s Research Coordination Network partnered with Facebook, Bentley University and University of Central Florida to host a workshop titled “Bridging Industry and Academia to Tackle Responsible Research and Privacy Practices”. As the title infers, the purpose of the workshop was to bring together key stakeholders from across industry, civil society, and academia to advance the privacy research agenda, focusing on topics including data analytics and privacy-preserving technologies, privacy and ethics in user research and people-centered privacy design.
Privacy Engineering Research and the GDPR: A Trans-Atlantic Initiative
With this event, we aim to determine the relevant state of the art in privacy engineering; in particular, we will focus on those areas where the “art” needs to be developed further. The goal of this trans-Atlantic initiative is to identify open research and development tasks, which are needed to make the full achievement of the GDPR’s ambitions possible.
Homomorphic Encryption Signals the Future for Socially Valuable Research on Private Data
Encryption has become a cornerstone of the technologies that support communication, commerce, banking, and myriad other essential activities in today’s digital world. In an announcement this week, Google revealed a new marketing attribution tool that relies on a particular type of advanced encryption to allow advertisers to understand whether their online ads have resulted in in-store purchases.
FPF, Intel, and PrecisionHawk Release Drones and Privacy by Design: Embedding Privacy Enhancing Technology in Unmanned Aircraft
Washington, DC – Today, in response to the Administration’s call-to-action on privacy protections related to drone operations, Future of Privacy Forum (FPF), Intel, and PrecisionHawk released Drones and Privacy by Design: Embedding Privacy Enhancing Technology in Unmanned Aircraft. The report highlights examples of privacy enhancing technologies and “Privacy-by-Design” applied to drones.