Global Privacy Assembly debates AI



The Global Privacy Assembly, with regulators from every continent convening in Istanbul, debated yesterday the role of AI in society, the privacy threats associated with its use, and who should be responsible for it.

Paul Nemitz, Principal Advisor at the EU Commission’s DG Justice, called for DPAs to ask questions and really look into algorithms as he thought that the privacy regulators are in the best position to demand answers.

He said that DPAs are the only place where all the AI knowledge can come together. To protect individuals’ privacy rights in a preventative way, they must exercise their right to ask, and strive to become centres of expertise, a hotbed for technology geeks and idealists for individual rights, Nemitz said.

The EU proposed the AI Act in April 2021. The European Parliament may make amendments to the AI Act to steer it more towards protecting fundamental rights of citizens.

Marc Rotenberg, for the Center for AI and Digital Policy, said that often when a new technology is introduced, there are problems in understanding its impact. The DPAs need to conduct investigations to understand the full implications of AI.

Angelene Falk, Australia’s Information and Privacy Commissioner, said that a human centric approach to new technology is needed, and indicated that this will be her regulatory approach. Her office’s cooperation and investigation with other DPAs into Clearview’s processing of facial recognition data culminated in ordering Clearview AI Inc. to destroy and not collect any more images of individuals in Australia. She said that Clearview is challenging this decision from last year.

It is expected that the DPAs will issue a resolution on AI at the end of their proceedings in Istanbul. The conference continues until 28 October.

See: 44th Global Privacy Assembly

We will report more on these issues and GPA2022 in Privacy Laws & Business International Report.