ITU Panel on personal data usage

Excited to be participating next week in the Joint Workshop on Personal data usage: regulatory and economic aspects at the International Telecommunications Union. The event will take place at ITU’s headquarters in Geneva next Wednesday April 17th.

Digital transformation processes and implementation of new and emerging ICTs, including AI/ML and Big Data, bring the importance of personal data to a new level with new benefits and opportunities but at the same time – with new challenges and concerns. This workshop will be held in the interest of all stakeholders to understand how to use personal data in a modern enabling environment. The panelists will provide various views from regulatory, academic and industry perspectives regarding economic and regulatory aspects of personal data usage.

I will be presenting my views on the peculiarities of personal data as an economic good, and discussing the regulatory landscape shaping the data economy. I’ll be representing Axon Partners Group, and my intervention will be fueled by my current research at IMDEA Networks Institute.

Most countries have long been regulating personal data protection, and the EU recently approved regulations to address the failures of data and digital service markets. Despite the huge efforts made so far, there might be need for more disruptive approaches to regulating data and digital markets, like paying back people for their data as proposed by Jaron Lanier some time ago, embedding Personal Information Management Systems in gatekeepers to manage personal data, or extending those data unions to act as federated regulatory watchdogs. 

Not only to safeguard users’ digital rights in the data economy, but also to enforce AI regulations, competent authorities will likely need to set guidelines, foster research, develop and make use of AI/ML compliance tools to automate regulatory processes. As the Allies needed a machine – The Bombe –  to break Enigma during WWII, we will likely need AI to regulate AI.