States’ privacy is a ‘continual conversation’ amid AI growth, officials say
Source: Route 50: By Chris Teale, Managing Editor, Route Fifty
More governments are embracing some form of privacy protection. It could be hard for those laws to keep up with emerging tech, but officials said that presents an opportunity to be forward-thinking.
States and cities have all begun their journeys towards data privacy regulations for different reasons, but now all face the prospect of artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies accelerating, or even upending, progress they have made.
Speakers at this week’s Innovation Spotlight hosted by Route Fifty and GovExecTV highlighted those differing origin stories.
Ginger Armbruster, chief privacy officer for Seattle, and Chris Bramwell, chief privacy officer in the Utah Office of Data Privacy, said their governments were inspired to act over the sometimes-controversial use of technology in public safety. Meanwhile, Nebraska’s Chief Information Security and Privacy Officer Patrick Wright said the collection of student data in public schools sparked that state’s privacy conversation.
Utah’s comprehensive privacy law went into effect in late 2023, while Nebraska’s is due to take effect at the start of next year. Seattle adopted its six principles to govern its Data Privacy Program in 2015, after a mandate to develop them from the mayor and city council.
But the growth of AI presents major challenges for state and local governments, in particular given the technology’s reliance on data to train generative AI tools like ChatGPT. The variety of data collected by states and localities all will need protecting, and laws may need updating to ensure that they consider the challenges and opportunities with new technologies.
“It's a great time to be modernizing your laws,” Bramwell said. “Instead of worrying about coming into compliance with all the existing laws, everybody can start saying, ‘Hey, we know we have some noncompliance issues. Let's plan for what's going to be here in 10 years with AI when it matures.’”
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It means privacy must be a “continual conversation” with legislators, businesses, other government agencies and residents as technology evolves, Armbruster said. But, she added, guiding principles that have been established early on help keep the conversation focused and are a good selling point for any skeptics.
“When we work with departments, we consult and talk about the principles and why privacy is there, and once you explain what it is we're protecting and how this will help actually build trust around the programs they're building and build transparency, it goes a long way,” she said. “It's a continual awareness building.”
Nebraska had a similar experience, Wright said, as state leaders had to make the concept of privacy real to people who may not have seen the need to regulate it.
“Getting over the initial hurdle of making it relatable, that was the big thing, and having that stakeholder engagement and stakeholder buy in to say, ‘How would you want someone to handle your…