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.
FPF also has an Ethics and Data in Research Working Group. This group receives late-breaking analysis of emerging legislation affecting research and data, meets to discuss the ethical and technological challenges of conducting research, and collaborates to create best practices to protect privacy, decrease risk, and increase data sharing for research, partnerships, and infrastructure. Learn more and join here.
Framing the "Big Data Industry"
For all its hype, discussions about Big Data often still devolve into debates about buzzwords and concepts like business intelligence, data analytics, and machine learning. Hidden in each of these terms are important privacy and ethical considerations. A recent article by Kirsten Martin in MIS Quarterly Executive attempts to bring these considerations to the surface by moving past framing […]
Future of Privacy Forum Releases New Survey on Privacy and Trust Issues in the "Sharing Economy"
FUTURE OF PRIVACY FORUM RELEASES NEW SURVEY ON PRIVACY AND TRUST ISSUES IN THE “SHARING ECONOMY” Whitepaper Examines Benefits and Challenges of Reputation Management in Peer-to-Peer Services and Provides an Overview of Market Leaders in Key Sharing Economy Sectors WASHINGTON, D.C. – Monday, June 8, 2015 – As peer-to-peer services comprising the “Sharing Economy” continue […]
Facebook Moves Forward with an Ethics Review Panel
Jules and Omer opine in the Hill on today’s announcement from Facebook, commenting about the “essential accountability mechanism for companies that are struggling to balance the risks and opportunities of big data.” The Hill “Facebook’s announcement — establishing guidelines, review processes, training and enhanced transparency for research projects — marks another milestone in the emergence […]
Thoughts on the Data Innovation Pledge
Yesterday, as he accepted the IAPP Privacy Vanguard award, Intel’s David Hoffman made a “data innovation pledge” that he would work only to promote ethical and innovative uses of data. As someone who only relatively recently entered the privacy world by diving headfirst into the sea of challenges surrounding big data, I think an affirmative […]
Big Data: A Benefit and Risk Analysis
On September 11, 2014, FPF released a whitepaper we hope will help to frame the big data conversation moving forward and promote better understanding of how big data can shape our lives. Big Data: A Benefit and Risk Analysis provides a practical guide for how benefits can be assessed in the future, but they also show how […]
Comments to NTIA on Big Data and Privacy
Today, FPF submitted comments to the NTIA as it begins its exploration of how big data impact the Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights. While the NTIA sought comment on over a dozen key questions, our filing focus largely on four issues: (1) the need for additional clarity surrounding the flexible application of the Consumer Privacy […]
"Gambling? In This Casino?" Jules and Omer on the Facebook Experiment
Today, Re/code ran an essay by Jules Polonetsky and Omer Tene, offering their take on the Facebook’s now-infamous experiment looking at the effects of tweaking the amount of positive or negative comments on a user’s News Feed: As the companies that serve us play an increasingly intimate role in our lives, understanding how they shape […]
Comments for the White House "Big Data Review"
This afternoon, FPF submitted comments to help inform the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy’s “Big Data Review.” Announced in January, the White House Big Data Review has been a helpful exercise in scoping out how big data is changing our society. Through public workshops at MIT, NYU, and Berkeley, the review has […]
Essays on Big Data and Privacy
A collection of essays by leading scholars and privacy advocates on the legal, technological, social, and policy implications of Big Data, emerging out of our 2013 Big Data and Privacy…
Sharing Thoughts on Big Data and Privacy
We wanted to draw your attention to several excellent pieces discussing and summarizing last Tuesday’s “Big Data and Privacy: Making Ends Meet” workshop: Jedidiah Bracy covered the event for the IAPP’s Privacy Perspectives blog. He highlights a number of the day’s discussions, and concludes that “the ethics of Big Data and technology will be discussed […]