AI raises the issue of the role commercial data brokers may play in combining privately acquired data with government information and what recourse individuals have for privacy violations. Image: katjen/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffThe growth in use by federal agencies of artificial intelligence raises questions of “whether agency roles and responsibilities relating to privacy have kept pace with emerging technologies and information sources,” a Congressional Research Service report says.
“Since the enactment of the Privacy Act of 1974, the federal government has grappled with how to preserve individual privacy while also leveraging the utility of computerized information,” it says. “As information resources management transitioned from primarily paper-based materials to digital systems and formats, Congress and the Office of Management and Budget have continued to update agency roles, responsibilities, and governance mechanisms with regard to management of agency information.”
An executive order of last October recognizes that use of AI can increase the risk that personal data could be exploited and exposed, and requires agencies to reduce that risk, it notes. However, it said that questions remain regarding all three of the main ways the order directs those efforts.
Regarding the order’s mandate to evaluate the potential Privacy Act considerations of using commercially available information in AI, it notes that the law focuses on records an agency itself produces and keeps. AI raises the issue of “what role private entities, such as commercial data brokers, may play in supplementing or comingling with government information and what recourse individuals have in the event of inappropriate use or quality of this third-party information.”
And while the order directs agencies to evaluate and update policies on “privacy impact assessments” required under the E-Government Act when a system change creates new privacy risks, “agency officials may not share a common understanding of what changes would create new risks, such as the creation or acquisition of a new information system or the updating of an existing system with new information that may change system outputs.”
Further, while the order puts an emphasis on “privacy-enhancing technologies,” it contains only a broad definition of them, it says, and their usefulness can be limited by factors such as potential cost, inconsistent definitions and “tradeoffs between accuracy and utility of the information.”
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