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.
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.
Announcing the Inaugural Issue of Future of Privacy Forum's Privacy Scholarship Reporter
Future of Privacy Forum is pleased to announce it has published the inaugural issue of the Privacy Scholarship Reporter. This regular newsletter will highlight recent privacy research and is published by the Privacy Research and Data Responsibility Network (RCN), an FPF initiative supported by the National Science Foundation.
The Top 10: Student Privacy News (April – May 2017)
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.
FPF Joins Leading Civil Society Groups, Academics and Companies to Participate in the Work of the Partnership on AI
Today, the Partnership on AI announced a new group of key stakeholders who will work with the Partnership’s Board of Directors to define and advance a shared vision of artificial intelligence that benefits people and society. The Future of Privacy Forum is proud to join this organization and help drive this important work forward.
AI Ethics: The Privacy Challenge
The Future of Privacy Forum and the Brussels Privacy Hub of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) are partnering with IEEE Security & Privacy in a call for papers focused on AI Ethics: The Privacy Challenge. Selected papers will be featured at The Brussels Privacy Symposium, an academic program jointly presented by the Brussels Privacy Hub of the VUB and FPF’s National Science Foundation supported Research Coordination Network.
Privacy Scholarship Research Reporter: Issue 1, May 2017 – Algorithms: Privacy Risk and Accountability
Notes from FPF Through academic, policy, and industry circles, making progress on the cluster of issues related to algorithmic accountability has become a leading priority. The inaugural issue of the Future of Privacy Forum’s Privacy Scholarship Reporter provides a clear and compelling look into some of the most worrisome problems and promising solutions. Although not […]
Call for Papers: Developing a Benefit-Cost Framework for Data Policy
The Program on Economics & Privacy at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School and the Future of Privacy Forum are seeking papers to explore the development of a benefit-cost framework in privacy policy. Scholars from an interdisciplinary background, including economics, law, public policy, business and marketing, are encouraged to submit abstracts for consideration.
Chasing the Golden Goose: What is the path to effective anonymisation?
Searching for effective methods and frameworks of de-identification often looks like chasing the Golden Goose of privacy law. For each answer that claims to unlock the question of anonymisation, there seems to be a counter-answer that declares anonymisation dead. In an attempt to de-mystify this race and un-tangle de-identification in practical ways, the Future of Privacy Forum and the Brussels Privacy Hub joined forces to organize the Brussels Symposium on De-identification – “Identifiability: Policy and Practical Solutions for Anonymisation and Pseudonymisation”.
The Top 10: Student Privacy News (Feb-March 2017)
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. New America has released an ethical framework to help colleges use predictive analytics to benefit students (this report follows their previous report […]
FPF Comments on NITRD’s Smart Cities and Communities Federal Strategic Plan
Last week, Future of Privacy Forum (FPF) submitted comments regarding the National Coordination Office for Networking and Information Technology Research and Development’s (NITRD) Request for Comment on the Draft Smart Cities and Communities Federal Strategic Plan, published in the Federal Register on January 9, 2017.