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How Can Policymakers Promote Innovation and Strengthen Privacy?
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Posted by Peter Cullen
Chief Privacy Strategist 
On January 28th, in conjunction with Data Privacy Day, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) convened its second “Exploring Privacy” Roundtable in Berkeley, California. The roundtable brought together some of the preeminent privacy thinkers from academia, industry, civil society and government to discuss complex and nuanced issues around technology policy, mobile computing, social networking and cloud computing.
One of the main topics of the day was the intersection of technology and policy. Specifically, given the importance of today’s technology-enabled, information-based services, what type of policy would help strengthen privacy protections, while at the same time allowing innovation to flourish? The dialogue reinforced that technology will almost always outpace policy, so we need to be careful as we think through what policy and or regulatory approaches might be required while ensuring we do not deny new and innovative products to the public. Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith laid out some of Microsoft’s views on this important topic in a recent speech on cloud computing at the Brookings Institution.
Fundamentally, regulating privacy or the use of information is about defining and assessing specific risks and harms, and mitigating those risks and harms through a balance of law, policy, standards education and encouraging market innovation. Indeed, accountability and the “use and obligations model” - discussed extensively at the FTC hearing in December – are increasingly used as examples of a privacy framework that better matches today’s information flows while ensuring the requirements and obligations of data protection are appropriate, and ensures risks can be assessed and mitigated on an ongoing and dynamic basis.
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