Samuelson-Glushko Clinics Team Up on AI and Privacy

| March 13, 2020

In partnership with our fellow Samuelson-Glushko Clinic at the University of Colorado, CIPPIC today submitted comments to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner regarding two of its proposals for reforming PIPEDA—Canada's federal private-sector privacy statute—to deal with the challenges posed by artificial intelligence. Our submissions on behalf of 25 privacy scholars from Canada, the United States, and Europe—led by Prof. Margot Kaminski of the University of Colorado and CIPPIC Director Vivek Krishnamurthy—respond to OPC's proposals to amend PIPEDA to “[p]rovide individuals with a right to explanation and increased transparency when they interact with, or are subject to, automated processing” (Proposal 4), and “[r]equire the application of Privacy by Design and Human Rights by Design in all phases of processing, including data collection” (Proposal 5).

Specifically, our submissions suggest that a revised PIPEDA should include:

1. An individual right to an explanation of an algorithmic decision with significant effects on individuals;

2. Legal requirements for the application of Privacy and Human Rights by Design in all phases of data processing;

3. Legal requirements that algorithmic systems operating in the “human realm” be tested for their privacy and other human rights impacts prior to their deployment; and

4. Ongoing systemic accountability tools, such as audits, and stakeholder oversight and engagement, to ensure expert oversight over algorithms and the natural and legal persons that build or use them.

CIPPIC is grateful to Blake Reid, Director of the Samuelson-Glushko Technology Law & Policy Clinic (TPLC) at the University of Colorado, and Kelsey Fayer, a Clinic Student Attorney, for partnering with us in drafting these submissions. We hope that this will be the first of many fruitful collaborations with our fellow Samuelson-Glushko law clinics around the world! We also wish to thank CIPPIC student volunteer Émilie-Anne Fleury for her reserach assitance in drafting the submission.

The full text of our submissions can be downloaded here.