Research often requires using sensitive data to answer important questions. The ethical collection and analysis of personal information can be challenging to do while still protecting the privacy of the implicated individuals, honoring informed consent, and complying with other legal obligations. The technology, policies, and ethical considerations for researchers are constantly shifting, sometimes making it difficult to keep up. That’s why FPF engages stakeholders across academia and industry to produce recommendations, best practices, and ethical review structures that promote responsible research. Our work is centered around streamlining, encouraging, and promoting responsible research that respects essential privacy and ethical considerations throughout the research lifecycle. FPF works with policymakers to develop legislative protections that support effective, responsible research with strong privacy safeguards, including hosting events that allow policymakers and regulators to engage directly with practitioners from academia, advocacy, and industry.
Innovation and Data Privacy Are Not Natural Enemies: Insights from Korea’s Experience
The following is a guest post to the FPF blog authored by Dr. Haksoo Ko, Professor at Seoul National University School of Law, FPF Senior Fellow and former Chairperson of South Korea’s Personal Information Protection Commission. The guest post reflects the opinion of the author only and does not necessarily reflect the position or views […]
FPF Year in Review 2025
Co-authored by FPF Communications Intern Celeste Valentino with contributions from FPF Global Communications Manager Joana Bala This year, FPF continued to broaden its footprint across priority areas of data governance, further expanding activities across a range of cross-sector topics, including AI, Youth, Conflict of Laws, AgeTech (seniors), and Cyber-Security. We have engaged extensively at the local […]
Brazil’s ANPD Preliminary Study on Generative AI highlights the dual nature of data protection law: balancing rights with technological innovation
Brazil’s Autoridade Nacional de Proteção de Dados (“ANPD”) Technology and Research Unit (“CGTP”) released the preliminary study Inteligência Artificial Generativa (“Preliminary Study on GenAI”, in Portuguese) as part of its Technological Radar series, on November 29, 2024. A short English version of the study was also released by the agency in December 2024. This analysis […]
The Curse of Dimensionality: De-identification Challenges in the Sharing of Highly Dimensional Datasets
The 2006 release by AOL of search queries linked to individual users and the re-identification of some of those users is one of the best known privacy disasters in internet history. Less well known is that AOL had released the data to meet intense demand from academic researchers who saw this valuable data set as essential […]
CPDP LatAm 2024: What is Top of Mind in Latin American Data Protection and Privacy? From data sovereignty, to PETs
On July 17-18, the fourth edition of the Computers, Privacy, and Data Protection Conference Latin America (CPDP LatAm) was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This year’s theme was on “Data Governance: From Latin America to the G20,” highlighting Brazil’s current presidency of the international cooperation forum. As in previous years, FPF participated on the […]
FERPA Exceptions: A Study in Studies
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, or FERPA, protects personally identifiable information from education records from unauthorized disclosure. The Law has been affording parents privacy rights over their children’s education records for almost half a century now; indeed, the fiftieth anniversary of FERPA’s passage is this August 2024. As FERPA’s golden birthday approaches, FPF is […]
Connecting Experts to Make Privacy-Enhancing Tech and AI Work for Everyone
The Future of Privacy Forum (FPF) launched its Research Coordination Network (RCN) for Privacy-Preserving Data Sharing and Analytics on Tuesday, July 9th. Industry experts, policymakers, civil society, and academics met to discuss the possibilities afforded by Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs), the inherent regulatory challenges, and how PETs interact with rapidly developing AI systems. FPF experts […]
Optum & The Mayo Clinic Win the 2022 Award for Research Data Stewardship
Author: Randy Cantz, U.S. Policy Intern, Ethics and Data in Research and former Communications Intern at FPF On Wednesday, May 10, 2023, the Future of Privacy Forum (FPF) honored representatives from Optum and the Mayo Clinic for their outstanding corporate-academic research data-sharing partnership at the 3rd annual Awards for Research Data Stewardship. The awards honor […]
Knowledge is Power: The Future of Privacy Forum launches FPF Training Program
“An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest”–Ben Franklin Let’s make 2023 the year we invest in ourselves, our teams, and the knowledge needed to best navigate this dynamic world of privacy and data protection. I am fortunate to know many of you who will read this blog post, but for those who I […]
Workplace Discrimination and Equal Opportunity
Why monitoring cultural diversity in your European workforce is not at odds with GDPR Author: Prof. Lokke Moerel* The following is a guest post to the FPF blog from Lokke Moerel, Professor of Global ICT Law at Tilburg University and a lawyer with Morrison & Foerster (Brussels). The guest blog reflects the opinion of the […]