Measuring and Protecting Privacy in the Always-On Era

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Paper by Dan Feldman and Eldar Haber: “Datamining practices have become greatly enhanced in the interconnected era. What began with the internetnow continues through the Internet of Things (IoT), whereby users can constantly be connected to the internet through various means like televisions, smartphones, wearables and computerized personal assistants, among other “things.” As many of these devices operate in a so-called “always-on” mode, constantly receiving and transmitting data, the increased use of IoT devices might lead society into an “always-on” era, where individuals are constantly datafied. As the current regulatory approach to privacy is sectoral in nature, i.e., protects privacy only within a specific context of information gathering or use, and directed only to specific pre-defined industries or a specific cohort, the individual’s privacy is at great risk. On the other hand, strict privacy regulation might negatively impact data utility which serves many purposes, and, perhaps mainly, is crucial for technological development and innovation. The tradeoff between data utility and privacy protection is most unlikely to be resolved under the sectoral approach to privacy, but a technological solution that relies mostly on a method called differential privacy might be of great help. It essentially suggests adding “noise” to data deemed sensitive ex-ante, depending on various parameters further suggested in this Article. In other words, using computational solutions combined with formulas that measure the probability of data sensitivity, privacy could be better protected in the always-on era.

This Article introduces legal and computational methods that could be used by IoT service providers and will optimally balance the tradeoff between data utility and privacy. It comprises several stages. The first Part discusses the protection of privacy under the sectoral approach, and estimates what values are embedded in it. The second Part discusses privacy protection in the “always-on” era. First it assesses how technological changes have shaped the sectoral regulation, then discusses why privacy is negatively impacted by IoT devices and the potential applicability of new regulatory mechanisms to meet the challenges of the “always-on” era. After concluding that the current regulatory framework is severely limited in protecting individuals’ privacy, the third Part discusses technology as a panacea, while offering a new computational model that relies on differential privacy and a modern technique called private coreset. The proposed model seeks to introduce “noise” to data on the user’s side to preserve individual’s privacy — depending on the probability of data sensitivity of the IoT device — while enabling service providers to utilize the data….(More)”.

Supreme Court rules against newspaper seeking access to food stamp data

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Josh Gerstein at Politico: “The Supreme Court on Monday handed a victory to businesses seeking to block their information from being disclosed to the public after it winds up in the hands of the federal government.

The justices ruled in favor of retailers seeking to prevent a South Dakota newspaper from obtaining store-level data on the redemption of food stamp benefits, now officially known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.

The high court ruling rejected a nearly half-century-old appeals court precedent that allowed the withholding of business records under the Freedom of Information Act only in cases where harm would result either to the business or to the government’s ability to acquire information in the future.

The latest case was set into motion when the U.S. Department of Agriculture refused to disclose the store-level SNAP data in response to a 2011 FOIA request from the Argus Leader, the daily newspaper in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The newspaper sued, but a federal district court ruled in favor of the USDA.

The Argus Leader appealed, and the U.S. Appeals Court for the 8th Circuit ruled that the exemption the USDA was citing did not apply in this case, sending the issue back to a lower court. The district court was tasked with determining whether the USDA was covered by a separate FOIA exemption governing information that would cause competitive injury if released.

That court ruled in favor of the newspaper, at which point the Food Marketing Institute, a trade group that represents retailers such as grocery stores, filed an appeal in lieu of the USDA….(More)”.

Smarter Select Committees

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Theo Bass at Nesta: “This report outlines how digital tools and methods can help select committees restore public trust in democracy, reinvigorate public engagement in Parliament and enhance the work of committees themselves.

Since their establishment in 1979, select committees have provided one of our most important democratic functions. At their best, committees gather available evidence, data and insight; tap into public experiences and concerns; provide a space for thoughtful deliberation; and help parliament make better decisions. However, the 40th anniversary of select committees presents an important opportunity to re-examine this vital parliamentary system to ensure they are fit for the 21st century.

Since 2012 select committees have committed to public engagement as a ‘core task’ of their work, but their approach has not been systematic and they still struggle to reach beyond the usual suspects, or find ways to gather relevant knowledge quickly and effectively. With public trust in democracy deteriorating, the imperative to innovate, improve legitimacy and find new ways to involve people in national politics is stronger than ever. This is where digital innovation can help.

If used effectively, digital tools and methods offer select committees the opportunity to be more transparent and accessible to a wider range of people, improving relevance and impact. Like any good public engagement, this needs careful design, without which digital participation risks being distorting and unhelpful, amplifying the loudest or least informed voices.

To achieve success, stronger ambition and commitment by senior staff and MPs, as well as experimentation and learning through trial and improvement will be essential. We recommend that the UK Parliament commits to running at least five pilots for digital participation, which we outline in more detail in the final section of this report….(More)”.

The Geometry of Thought

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Barbara Tversky at Edge: “…So far, we have categories and themes, in our minds and in the world. Your mind might have jumped back to lines: we arrange towels and dishes and toys in lines on shelves. That seems by necessity—after all, there’s gravity. But we line up windows in rows in apartment and office buildings; surely, gravity doesn’t require that. Buildings are lined up on streets. Streets are traditionally lined up in grids, not just in the west but also in the east. Also not required by gravity, more likely by our desire to organize. I did say lines are not necessarily straight, though there are huge advantages to straight lines, but you might be thinking: what about the curved streets and paths common in US suburbs and Chinese gardens? Answers: first, almost nothing is always (note the hedge, I added “almost”). Second, the curved streets aren’t so much designed to disorient you, though they do that, but to give a feeling of mystery and discovery. And perhaps to slow down traffic. There’s aesthetics too. Some people like curves, others like lines.

Our arrangements in space go far beyond lines and categories. We create hierarchies of categories, plates on one shelf, bowls on another, arranged by size. Books arranged by topic, then ordered alphabetically by author. Table settings arranged in 1-1 correspondences, everyone gets a plate and a glass and a napkin and cutlery. There are also symmetries and repetitions and recursions in both the outsides and insides of buildings. There are orderly arrangements in time as well as space. It’s beginning to sound like programming.

We’ve begun an answer to the question: how do we structure our thoughts and our world? Many ways, not just one, and they mirror each other. We put our minds in the world. The mind in the world creates common ground for our collective thoughts. It informs us, tells us what it is, it directs our thoughts and it directs our actions. Think how different our world looks, where nearly everything is designed, from the world of our hunter-gatherer ancestors. Think of what that organization, an organization by abstractions, does to our minds and to our bodies, even tiny minds and bodies….(More)”.

Government Communications in a Digital Age

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Book by Kim Murphy: “Just like political parties, governments must adapt to the demands of the digital sphere as their legitimacy is dependent on their ability to communicate decisions to citizens. However, despite abundant research into how the Internet is changing political communications, little is known about how governments use digital technologies to communicate with citizens. There is also little knowledge of how different political systems shape the use of technology in this respect. Therefore, from a comparative perspective this study examines how government organisations in Germany and Great Britain are using websites and social media to interact with citizens and the media on a daily basis. Its empirical approach involves a content analysis of government websites and social media pages and a social network analysis of Twitter networks. Its findings show that government ministries predominantly use websites and social media for one-way communication and that social media is supporting the personalisation of government communications….(More)”.

Which Countries Have More Open Governments? Assessing Structural Determinants of Openness

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Paper by Sabina Schnell and Suyeon Jo: “An increasing number of countries are adopting open government reforms, driven, in part, by the Open Government Partnership (OGP), a global effort dedicated to advancing such initiatives. Yet, there is still wide variation in openness across countries. We investigate the political, administrative, and civic factors that explain this variation, using countries’ fulfillment of OGP eligibility criteria as a proxy for minimum standards of openness. We find that countries with strong constraints on the executive and high levels of citizen education have governments that are more open. A dense network of civil society organizations is associated with more budget transparency and higher civil liberties, but not with access to information or asset disclosure laws. The results suggest that if the value of openness is to be translated in practice, it is not enough to have capable bureaucracies—countries also need informed citizens and strong oversight of executive agencies….(More)”.

Crowdsourcing and Crisis Mapping in Complex Emergencies

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Guidance paper by Andrew Skuse: “…examines the use of crowdsourcing and crisis mapping during complex emergencies. Crowdsourcing is a process facilitated by new information and communication technologies (ICTs), social media platforms and dedicated software programs. It literally seeks the help of ‘the crowd’, volunteers or the general public, to complete a series of specific tasks such as data collection, reporting, document contribution and so on. Crowdsourcing is important in emergency situations because it allows for a critical link to be forged between those affected by an emergency and those who are responding to it. Crowdsourcing is often used by news organisations to gather information, i.e. citizen journalism, as well as by organisations concerned with emergencies and humanitarian aid, i.e. International Committee of the Red Cross, the Standby Task Force and CrisisCommons. Here, crowdsourced data on voting practices and electoral violence, as well as the witnessing of human rights contraventions are helping to improve accountability and transparency in fragile or conflict-prone states. Equally, crowdsourcing facilitates the sharing of individual and collective experiences, the gathering of specialized knowledge, the undertaking of collective mapping tasks and the engagement of the public through ‘call-outs’ for information…(More)”.

The language we use to describe data can also help us fix its problems

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Luke Stark & Anna Lauren Hoffmann at Quartz: “Data is, apparently, everything.

It’s the “new oil” that fuels online business. It comes in floods or tsunamis. We access it via “streams” or “fire hoses.” We scrape it, mine it, bank it, and clean it. (Or, if you prefer your buzzphrases with a dash of ageism and implicit misogyny, big data is like “teenage sex,” while working with it is “the sexiest job” of the century.)

These data metaphors can seem like empty cliches, but at their core they’re efforts to come to grips with the continuing onslaught of connected devices and the huge amounts of data they generate.

In a recent article, we—an algorithmic-fairness researcher at Microsoft and a data-ethics scholar at the University of Washington—push this connection one step further. More than simply helping us wrap our collective heads around data-fueled technological change, we set out to learn what these metaphors can teach us about the real-life ethics of collecting and handling data today.

Instead of only drawing from the norms and commitments of computer science, information science, and statistics, what if we looked at the ethics of the professions evoked by our data metaphors instead?…(More)”.

Developing Artificially Intelligent Justice

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Paper by Richard M. Re and Alicia Solow-Niederman: “Artificial intelligence, or AI, promises to assist, modify, and replace human decision-making, including in court. AI already supports many aspects of how judges decide cases, and the prospect of “robot judges” suddenly seems plausible—even imminent. This Article argues that AI adjudication will profoundly affect the adjudicatory values held by legal actors as well as the public at large. The impact is likely to be greatest in areas, including criminal justice and appellate decision-making, where “equitable justice,” or discretionary moral judgment, is frequently considered paramount. By offering efficiency and at least an appearance of impartiality, AI adjudication will both foster and benefit from a turn toward “codified justice,” an adjudicatory paradigm that favors standardization above discretion. Further, AI adjudication will generate a range of concerns relating to its tendency to make the legal system more incomprehensible, data-based, alienating, and disillusioning. And potential responses, such as crafting a division of labor between human and AI adjudicators, each pose their own challenges. The single most promising response is for the government to play a greater role in structuring the emerging market for AI justice, but auspicious reform proposals would borrow several interrelated approaches. Similar dynamics will likely extend to other aspects of government, such that choices about how to incorporate AI in the judiciary will inform the future path of AI development more broadly….(More)”.

Public Entrepreneurship: How to train 21st century leaders

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Beth Noveck at apolitical: “So how do we develop these better ways of working in government? How do we create a more effective public service?

Governments, universities and philanthropies are beginning to invest in training those inside and outside of government in new kinds of public entrepreneurial skills. They are also innovating in how they teach.

Canada has created a new Digital Academy to teach digital literacy to all 250,000 public servants. Among other approaches, they have created a 15 minute podcast series called bus rides to enable public servants to learn on their commute.

The better programs, like Canada’s, combine online and face-to-face methods. This is what Israel does in its Digital Leaders program. This nine-month program alternates between web- and live meetings as well as connecting learners to a global, online network of digital innovators.

Many countries have started to teach human-centred design to public servants, instructing officials in how to design services with, not simply for the public, as WeGov does in Brazil. in Chile, the UAI University has just begun teaching quantitative skills, offering three day intensives in data science for public servants.

The GovLab also offers a nifty, free online program called Solving Public Problems with Data.

The Public sector learning

To ensure that learning translates into practice, Australia’s BizLab Academy, turns students into teachers by using alumni of their human-centred design training as mentors for new students.

The Cities of Orlando and Sao Paulo go beyond training public servants. Orlando includes members of the public in its training program for city officials. Because they are learning to redesign services with citizens, the public participates in the training.

The Sao Paulo Abierta program uses citizens as trainers for the city’s public servants. Over 23,000 of them have studied with these lay trainers, who possess the innovation skills that are in short supply in government. In fact, public officials are prohibited from teaching in the program altogether.

Image from the ten recommendations for training public entrepreneurs. Read all the recommendations here. 

Recognising that it is not enough to train only a lone innovator or data scientist in a unit, governments are scaling their programs across the public sector.

Argentina’s LabGob has already trained 30,000 people since 2016 in its Design Academy for Public Policy with plans to expand. For every class taken, a public servant earns points, which are a prerequisite for promotions and pay raises in the Argentinian civil service.

Rather than going broad, some training programs are going deep by teaching sector-specific innovation skills. The NHS Digital Academy done in collaboration with Imperial College is a series of six online and four live sessions designed to produce leaders in health innovation.

Innovating in a bureaucracy

In my own work at the GovLab at New York University, we are helping public entrepreneurs take their public interest projects from idea to implementation using coaching, rather than training.

Training classes may be wonderful but leave people feeling abandoned when they return to their desks to face the challenge of innovating within a bureaucracy.

With hands-on mentoring from global leaders and peer-to-peer support, the GovLab Academycoaching programs try to ensure that public servants are getting the help they need to advance innovative projects.

Knowing what innovation skills to teach and how to teach them, however, should depend on asking people what they want. That’s why the Australia New Zealand School of Government is administering a survey asking these questions for public servants there….(More)”.