Last Friday, the FTC announced an agenda for its upcoming workshop, “Big Data: A Tool for Inclusion or Exclusion?” which will take place on Monday, Sept. 15, starting at 8:00 a.m. As we’ve previously reported, the workshop will build on recent efforts by the FTC and other government agencies to understand how new technologies affect … Continue Reading
On 2 July 2014, the European Commission issued a Communication titled “Towards a thriving data-driven economy”, which describes the features of such economy and sets out some operational conclusions. The Communication responds to the European Council’s conclusions of October last year which called for EU action to provide the right framework conditions for a single … Continue Reading
In conjunction with the White House’s comprehensive review of big-data and privacy issues that resulted in a 79-page report, last week the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (“PCAST”) released a parallel big-data report. The White House report is more general and contains six major policy recommendations, whereas the PCAST report, authored by … Continue Reading
Today the White House released its big data and privacy report, entitled “Big Data: Seizing Opportunities, Preserving Values.” The report is the result of a three-month review, which was led by White House counselor John Podesta and was first announced as part of the President’s January speech on NSA reform. It primarily outlines the Administration’s … Continue Reading
This morning, the FTC announced that it would host a public workshop in September entitled “Big Data: A Tool for Inclusion or Exclusion?” in order to examine the increasing use of big-data analytics and its potential impact on low-income, diverse, and underserved American consumers. The FTC noted that while predictive-analytic techniques produce tremendous benefits by … Continue Reading
“The evolution of big data has exposed gaps in EU competition, consumer protection and data protection policies”, said Peter Hustinx, the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS), when presenting the EDP’s preliminary opinion on the interplay between these three policy areas. The Opinion titled “Privacy and Competitiveness in the Age of Big Data”, issued on 26 … Continue Reading
With the ongoing public dialogue concerning the intersection of technological innovation, national security, and privacy that followed Edward Snowden’s revelations of classified information last year, it is no surprise that privacy and security were top themes at SXSW Interactive this year. The following summarizes key points made about privacy throughout the Interactive conference, which ended … Continue Reading
South by Southwest (“SXSW”) Interactive kicked off last week, and Covington was there to cover privacy and big data’s big buzz, a topic which dominated much of the conference. Among the events that took place last Friday were “Big Data Inverted: The Best Candy from Strangers?” and “Privacy Under the Covers: The Naked Truth.” The … Continue Reading
As part of the White House’s ongoing review of “big data” and its implications for privacy, the economy, and public policy, the Office of Science and Technology Policy (“OSTP”) has announced that it is requesting comments from the public on several key issues. OSTP’s Request for Information asks commenters to consider the following questions: What … Continue Reading
The White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy (“OSTP”) is set to co-host a series of at least three public workshops to review “the implications of collecting, analyzing, and using” big data. The series continues the White House’s 2014 focus on privacy and big data, which began on January 17 with President Obama’s discussion … Continue Reading
The FTC has announced its agenda and panelists for its workshop on connected devices, which will be held on November 19, 2013. The workshop will focus on three industries that increasingly rely on the Internet of Things: (1) homes equipped with “smart” home appliances and connected devices; (2) health and fitness devices that transmit data … Continue Reading
Earlier this week, U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chairwoman Edith Ramirez gave the keynote address at a technology conference, in which she focused on the privacy challenges of so-called “big data.” Her remarks provide some guidance about what the FTC considers “best practices” in terms of deploying big data analytics without raising privacy concerns. Data minimization … Continue Reading
Yesterday, industry and government panelists participated in a conference sponsored by the Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee that included a panel discussion on “Plumbing the Policy Implications of Data Analytics and Defining Big Data,” The Year’s Most Overused Term.” According to press reports, Federal Trade Commission Senior Policy Adviser and panelist Paul Ohm acknowledged that … Continue Reading
