Artificial intelligence tools will be heavily regulated by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) with consumer privacy in mind, Commission Chair Lina Khan told tech executives and startup founders at a conference on Tuesday. told the audience.
“We are creating clear rules for the development, use and management of AI inputs, and developing easily administered remedies,” Khan said in his speech. “This means making clear that some data, particularly people's sensitive health data, geolocation data, and browsing data, simply cannot be used to train models.”
Khan said the agency's enforcement action will make clear that there is “no exception for AI” from existing law.
“Companies cannot use innovation claims as cover for breaking the law,” Khan added.
Khan noted that behavioral advertising can encourage companies to misuse personal data, and said training AI models is “emerging as another capability that could further encourage surveillance.” .
Khan said he is closely monitoring how companies notify consumers when they want to use the data they have already collected to train AI in another capacity, adding that companies should ” We need to proactively notify users of these changes, rather than silently and retroactively rewriting the terms.” ”
The FTC recently announced a series of settlements with companies that allege they improperly used consumers' health, location, and browsing data.
Last week, the agency announced that Avast Limited will pay $16.5 million and will continue to do so after an investigation revealed that the company was suspected of selling re-identifiable aggregated browsing data to third parties. Announced that it will no longer be allowed to sell or license web browsing data to advertisers. It is usually done on a large scale and without warning to consumers.
Last month, two data brokers were fined for selling location data to advertisers, with the FTC alleging that the companies collected and sold data without sufficient notice or consent from consumers. The proposed settlement, which would crack down on the sale of geolocation data, was unprecedented for the agency.
Last March, as part of a series of health privacy settlements, online counseling service BetterHelp shared information about consumers' mental health issues with third parties including Facebook and Snapchat for advertising purposes. The suspect agreed to pay $7.8 million.
Khan's speech Tuesday reflected the FTC's increasingly aggressive approach to regulating how technology companies treat consumer privacy.
“We're looking at how business models can create and drive incentives,” Khan said. “Our remedies make clear that efforts to improve algorithms cannot come at the expense of people’s privacy and security.”
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