Privacy & Information Security Law Blog

During the week of June 25, 2018, the Centre for Information Policy Leadership (“CIPL”) at Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP hosted its annual executive retreat in San Francisco, California. The annual event consisted of a closed pre-retreat session for CIPL members, a CIPL Panel at the APPA Forum Open session followed by a CIPL reception and dinner and a special all day workshop with data protection commissioner members of the Asia Pacific Privacy Authorities (“APPA”) on Accountable AI.

CIPL Pre-Retreat Closed Session

On June 25, 2018, CIPL hosted a closed pre-retreat session for members on global privacy developments at Hunton Andrews Kurth’s San Francisco office. The session consisted of a discussion of current EU General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) implementation, compliance and enforcement issues, the impact of the GDPR on global organizational privacy management programs and the interrelation between the GDPR and ePrivacy. This was followed by a discussion of emerging new privacy laws in Latin America and India, the growth of the APEC Cross-Border Privacy Rules (“CBPR”) and Privacy Recognition for Processors systems, and developments in EU adequacy negotiations.

CIPL Panel at APPA Forum Open Session

On June 26, 2018, CIPL held a panel on Accountable and Interoperable Cross-border Data Flows as part of the 49th APPA Forum Open Session. The panel discussed the many requirements organizations have to contend with when transferring data across borders, the latest updates to the APEC CBPR system and the recently introduced U.S. Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data Act. Data as a driver of innovation and the need for its ability to flow across jurisdictions was also discussed.

CIPL Special Executive Retreat Workshop on Accountable AI

On June 27, 2018, CIPL hosted a full day workshop on accountable AI at Google’s offices in San Francisco. Data protection commissioner members of APPA attended and participated in the day-long event. The workshop marked the third major event to date in CIPL’s Project on Artificial Intelligence and Data Protection: ​Delivering Sustainable AI Accountability in Practice.

The workshop included several keynote addresses on AI from leading technologists and data scientists, followed by three panel sessions on current uses of AI in the public and private sectors, the key data protection challenges and risks associated with AI and the elements of accountable AI. Over 100 invited guests attended the session, including CIPL members, data privacy regulators from around the globe, business and technology leaders and academics.

The workshop commenced with leading AI technology experts and engineers from Intel, Google, Accenture and Microsoft sharing their industry insights and experiences on the growing array of current applications of AI as well as the trajectory of AI’s role in society going forward. A discussion of the technical aspects of AI, including the black box concept and neural nets, and their impact on data protection principles followed.

The second panel featured short presentations from data protection regulators on their current initiatives surrounding AI and on the wide variety of challenges that organizations will face as both AI technologies and privacy frameworks and regulations develop. Following presentations from the UK Information Commissioner’s Office, Japan Personal Information Protection Commission, Singapore Personal Data Protection Commission and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data, Hong Kong, regulators and experts from industry further discussed the challenges and risks associated with AI both universally and in specific jurisdictions.

The final panel of the day featured a discussion on the elements of accountable AI and potential solutions for enabling responsible data use for AI applications. Top privacy executives from leading CIPL member companies discussed their organizations’ current initiatives for delivering accountability in the AI context and also some of the key issues that organizations are working on, including transparency and the role of the user and accountability.

CIPL’s AI project aims to provide a more nuanced and detailed understanding of the opportunities presented by AI, potential misalignment with data protection laws and practical ways to address the issues through the lens of organizational accountability. For more details about the project, please see the project workplan.