Exploring emotion-detection technology: A conversation with Ben Bland

05/14/21 • 42 min

Artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies are rapidly developing across virtually all sectors of the global economy. One nascent field is empathic technology, which, for better or worse, includes emotion detection. It is estimated that the emotion detection industry could be worth $56 billion by 2024. However, judging a person's emotional state is subjective and raises a host of privacy, fairness, and ethical questions. Ben Bland has worked in the empathic technology space in recent years and now chairs the IEEE's P7014 Working Group to develop a global standard for the ethics of empathic technology. We recently caught up to discuss the pros and cons of the technology and his work with IEEE.

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US government surveillance, global data flows and the Russia investigation: A chat with April Doss

U.S. government surveillance bubbled back up in headlines in recent weeks. Portugal's data protection authority halted transfers of data to the U.S. after complaints that census data were being sent back to the U.S. The same week, a U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court decision was published, in which it renewed a U.S. surveillance program even though it found some Federal Bureau of Investigation employees illegally accessed email data. This comes as the U.S. and EU try to hammer out a renewed data transfer agreement in the wake of the "Schrems II" decision that invalidated Privacy Shield. April Falcon Doss worked at the U.S. National Security Agency for 13 years. In 2017, Doss joined the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence for the Russia investigation. She also wrote a book, "Cyber Privacy: Who Has Your Data and Why You Should Care," and took a new job at Georgetown University Law Center. Host Jedidiah Bracy recently caught up with Doss to discuss the state of play of U.S. surveillance law, her new book, what she found out while investigating the 2016 presidential election, and what’s on the horizon with her new gig at Georgetown.

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Rep. Suzan DelBene on the need for a federal US privacy law

Prospects for a federal privacy law in the U.S. ramped up in recent years, but even though data protection is a bipartisan issue, nothing has come close to passing. At the same time, U.S. state activity is swarming, and many countries around the world are developing and implementing their own national privacy laws. So what’s it going to take for the U.S. to pass a federal law? Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., was the first congressional lawmaker to propose federal privacy legislation in 2021. Her bill received praise from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other industry groups for its approach, but does the bill have what it takes to cross the finish line? The Privacy Advisor Podcast host Jedidiah Bracy recently caught up with DelBene to talk about her proposed bill, the state of play on Capitol Hill, and what it will take for the U.S. to pass federal privacy legislation.