Kids Privacy a Top Priority of the Global Privacy Assembly, New Chair Says
Children's privacy rights are a key focus of the Global Privacy Assembly (GPA), newly elected Chair Philippe Dufresne said Wednesday during a streamed Future of Privacy Forum discussion. Much of the assembly's work has centered on the best interests of children, including topics such as the challenges of social media, targeted ads and exposure to privacy breaches, he said.
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The GPA last met in September in Seoul, South Korea, where the theme was AI in people's daily lives, including data protection and privacy issues, but it also focused on AI and children, he said.
DPAs in Seoul signed a joint statement that outlined the many opportunities AI offers, along with its various risks, including concerns about data protection and privacy, bias, misinformation and AI-related hallucinations (see 2509230008).
Asked if the assembly will continue to be relevant or will be derailed by AI, Dufresne said he believes that privacy regulation and AI "are absolutely integrated." AI is based on data, and the GPA plays a key role in that area, he added. Its role is more important now because helping citizens, industry, government and academia make sense of data protection requires a coordinated approach, he said.
The GPA also collaborates with other organizations such as the G7, European Data Protection Board and Asia Pacific Privacy Authorities, Dufresne said. That kind of collaboration is key to finding common approaches to data protection, he added.
"Privacy is more alive than ever," Dufresne said. There's more awareness of privacy among citizens, and companies increasingly recognize data protection as a "competitive asset," particularly concerning kids privacy.
Dufresne, Canada's privacy commissioner, has made child protection a priority there, too, he said. He's following in the footsteps of the U.K. ICO in developing a children's privacy code, and said he's hoping for modernized privacy legislation that includes child protection.