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.
Big Data: Will We Be Judged By The Tin Man?
Big data, the enhanced ability to collect, store and analyze previously unimaginable quantities of data in tremendous speed and with negligible costs, delivers immense benefits in marketing efficiency, healthcare, environmental protection, national security and more. While some privacy advocates may dispute the merits of sophisticated behavioral marketing practices or debate the usefulness of certain data […]
FPFcast: Talking Big Data with Professor Bill McGeveran
The Ethics of Student Privacy: Building Trust for Ed Tech
Read FPF’s paper on ethics and trust in the ed tech environment, but Jules Polonetsky and Omer Tene, as published in the International Review of Information Ethics, Vol. 21 (07/2014).
What's Scary About Big Data, and How to Confront It
Any discussion surrounding the benefits–and the risks–presented by Big Data often focuses on the far-off future. The world of Minority Report is frequently invoked, but in the wake of April’s “Big Data Week,” it is time to recognize that Big Data is already here. In their recent book, Big Data: A Revolution that Will Transform […]
Increasing Calls for a Big Data Dialog
Big Data promises to open new doors to curing diseases, cleaning the environment, and easing life’s burdens, but is it opening too many doors? Writing for The New York Times on Sunday, Steve Lohr suggested that the privacy challenges posed by Big Data are so large that it might trump any potential benefits. The surveillance […]
Swimming in the Big Data Ocean
Even as it promises breakthroughs in healthcare, the environment, and how individuals understand the world, Big Data may also be a powerful tool in the national security space. On Wednesday, the Journal of National Security Law & Policy, along with the Georgetown Center on National Security and the Law, launched their first symposium by addressing […]
Big Data and Privacy: Same Old Concerns or Something New?
Even as Big Data is used to chart flu outbreaks and improve winter weather forecasts, Big Data continues to generate important policy debates. Watching businesses and advocates argue over the use of “data” to measure human behavior in order to cut through both political ideology and personal intuition, David Brooks declares in The New York […]
New Smart Grid Research Shows Last Generation Technologies Pose Privacy Risks
Researchers at the University of South Carolina have published research showing that some types of electrical meters are broadcasting unencrypted information …
Call for Papers: Policy Papers for Policy Makers 2012
PRIVACY PAPERS FOR POLICY MAKERS 2012 The Future of Privacy Forum (FPF) invites privacy scholars and authors with an interest in privacy issues to submit papers to be considered for FPF’s third edition of “Privacy Papers for Policy Makers.” PURPOSE • To highlight important research and analytical work on a variety of privacy topics for […]
Consortium of Global Companies Announce Consumer Research in Effort to Strengthen Mobile Privacy by Design
WASHINGTON, May 30, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — Insights Being Unveiled Today at Federal Trade Commission Workshop As mobile technology evolves, solid privacy design is critical to ensure user understanding and build consumer trust. Today, Create with Context, an independent research and design firm, is releasing results of a wide-ranging study on users’ comprehension and […]