U.S. mulls ‘Big Data’ privacy for non-citizens

“Privacy is a worldwide value that should be reflected in how the federal government handles personally identifiable information from non-U.S. citizens.”

May 02, 2014 10:16 pm | Updated November 17, 2021 04:12 am IST - Washington:

Even as the embers of the U.S. National Security Agency’s global surveillance controversy continue to smoulder around the Obama administration, the White House this week signalled its intention to placate privacy advocates by announcing that the government collection of “Big Data” would eventually be subject to privacy protections for non-citizens.

Unlike the case of the NSA’s international mass surveillance of Internet and telephone communications, whose vast scale, whistle-blower and former NSA contractor Edward Snowden exposed last summer, “Big Data” is collected both by the public and private sectors and is used for everything from targeting specific consumer segments with differential pricing in the financial products market to using geospatial parameters to locate debris from the lost Malaysian Airline flight MH370.

On Thursday the White House, led by Counsellor to the President John Podesta, proposed that the troves of such data collected would be the focus of six policy recommendations, among which the one most relevant to foreigners would be the proposal to extend protections to “non-U.S. Persons because privacy is a worldwide value that should be reflected in how the federal government handles personally identifiable information from non-U.S. citizens.”

Two of the proposals requiring Congressional cooperation in passing new legislation, encompass the reform of out-dated privacy laws including the Privacy Act of 1974 and the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986, which the report suggests are hard to apply to data stored in the cloud.

Yet in a media call with reporters Mr. Podesta appeared confident that “work to apply the 1974 Privacy Act to non-U.S. persons would begin immediately and could be completed within six to 12 months.”

The second major concern that has raised temperatures in civil liberties advocacy circles here is the fact that Big Data can be used to “personalise” prices, promotions, and access to financial services, significantly raising the risk of discrimination against minority groups.

‘Must protect the vulnerable’

Related to this concern, Mr. Podesta’s report notes, “Private-sector users of big data must ensure vulnerable classes are not unfairly targeted.

The increasing use of algorithms to make eligibility decisions must be carefully monitored for potential discriminatory outcomes for disadvantaged groups, even absent discriminatory intent.”

He was however firm in denying that there was any measure of hypocrisy in the administration coming out with this report without further redressing the concerns stemming from the disclosures of foreign surveillance by Mr. Snowden. According to him Mr. Obama had ordered the review of big data collection along with intelligence reforms.

In January 2014 Mr. Obama clearly underscored the connection between the NSA’s collection of “signals intelligence” and big data collection. He said that after a review of the former, Mr. Podesta and his team were tasked with reaching out to privacy experts, technologists and business leaders to “look at… how we can continue to promote the free flow of information in ways that are consistent with both privacy and security.”

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.