Public Policy
Science-Based Expertise about the Challenges in Developing and Applying Technology
Technology is at the heart of some of the most pressing issues faced by society. Developed and deployed around the globe, new technologies – and our increasing reliance on computing and networks – raise concerns that stretch beyond national borders, going to the heart of how we live, work, and interact with one another.
Drawing on a membership that includes industry pioneers and leading researchers at the forefront of technology, ACM provides expertise and advice to policymakers, the media, and the public.
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TechBrief on Data Privacy Protection
ACM TechBriefs is a series of short technical bulletins by ACM’s Technology Policy Council that present scientifically-grounded perspectives on the impact of specific developments or applications of technology. Designed to complement ACM’s activities in the policy arena, the primary goal is to inform rather than advocate for specific policies. The new edition concerns the proliferation of data collection, advanced algorithms, and powerful computers which have made it easy to piece together information about individuals’ private lives from public information—even as controls over information privacy become increasingly ineffective.
USTPC Statement on CrowdStrike Incident
ACM's US Technology Policy Committee has released a “Statement on Mass Cybersecurity Incidents Likely to Recur.” On July 18, 2024, CrowdStrike, a US-based cybersecurity technology company, released a sensor configuration update which caused a global outage affecting an estimated 8.5 million computers. Several critical infrastructure sectors including airlines, 911 emergency systems, banks, government agencies, healthcare, and hospitals around the world were impacted. While CrowdStrike has provided some information as to how the accident happened, ACM USTPC urges that all the details be thoroughly and publicly investigated.
TPC Releases Principles for Generative AI Technologies
In response to major advances in generative AI technologies—as well as the significant questions these technologies pose in areas including intellectual property, the future of work, and even human safety—ACM's global Technology Policy Council (TPC) has issued "Principles for the Development, Deployment, and Use of Generative AI Technologies." Drawing on the deep technical expertise of computer scientists in the United States and Europe, the TPC statement outlines eight principles intended to foster fair, accurate, and beneficial decision-making concerning generative and all other AI technologies.
TPC Releases Statement on Principles for Responsible Algorithmic Systems
The Association for Computing Machinery’s global Technology Policy Council (TPC) has released a new Statement on Principles for Responsible Algorithmic Systems authored jointly by its US (USTPC) and Europe Technology Policy Committees (Europe TPC). Recognizing that algorithmic systems are increasingly used by governments and companies to make or recommend decisions that have far-reaching effects on individuals, organizations, and society, the ACM Statement lays out nine instrumental principles intended to foster fair, accurate, and beneficial algorithmic decision-making.
USTPC Issues Revised Statement on Remote Proctoring
ACM's US Technology Policy Committee has released a Statement on Principles for the Development and Deployment of Equitable, Private, and Secure Remote Proctoring Systems. The statement provides a framework to guide those developing and deploying remote proctoring systems to ensure that these systems are private, secure, fair, and accessible for all users. The statement refines and expands upon principles first developed and published in August of 2021 as the COVID pandemic increased the use of, but not necessarily the adoption of, adequate policies and practices to govern such systems.
View the Deepfakes, Disinformation and Democracy Conference
ACM's US Technology Policy Committee joined with the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation and the Online News Association to bring together key stakeholders, experts, and thought leaders to discuss the future of deepfakes, disinformation, and democracy in a half-day virtual policy conference. View a recording of the conference, which occurred on Wednesday, June 2.
Screening and Panel Discussion on Coded Bias Film, March 29
ACM's Technology Policy Council and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council sponsored a free screening and public discussion of the film "Coded Bias" and how those in computer science fields can address issues of algorithmic fairness. The discussion, held on March 29, 2021, has been archived, and "Coded Bias" is now viewable on both PBS and Netflix.
Panel on Valuing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Computing
ACM Fellow Timothy Pinkston organized and moderated a panel on "Valuing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Our Computing Community" held as a joint session of several co-located virtual conferences in March 2021. The panel included John Hennessey, David Patterson, Natalie Enright Jerger, Margaret Martonosi, Bill Dally and Kim Hazelwood. Watch a recording of the session and read a recap in CACM.
ACM Europe TPC Comments on AI White Paper
ACM’s Europe Technology Policy Committee submitted comments to the European Commission on "Artificial Intelligence—A European approach to excellence and trust," which addresses the future of AI in Europe. The comments, submitted in questionnaire form, asked the Commission to rate priorities based on their perceived importance, such as skills and training; public/private partnerships; and financing for startups.
ACM Europe TPC Comments on UK National Data Strategy
ACM’s Europe Technology Policy Committee has formally urged the UK government to assure that its National Data Strategy provide for datasets that are open, subject to multidisciplinary expert review, protected by robust risk assessment, and compiled in consultation with marginalized communities to assure their benefit to all sectors of society.
USTPC Urges Narrower Definition of Computer Fraud and Abuse Act
ACM's US Technology Policy Committee filed a friend of the court brief with the US Supreme Court in the landmark case of Van Buren v. United States—the first time it has reviewed the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, a 1986 law that was originally intended to punish hacking. USTPC notes that the questions posed in this case have broad implications for data and computing scientists, as well as other professionals who use the internet and computing technology, particularly to access information posted online.
USTPC Issues Statement on Use of Facial Recognition Technologies
ACM's US Technology Policy Committee has called for “an immediate suspension of the current and future private and governmental use of facial recognition (FR) technologies in all circumstances known or reasonably foreseeable to be prejudicial to established human and legal rights” in its “Statement on Principles and Prerequisites for the Development, Evaluation and Use of Unbiased Facial Recognition Technologies.”
ACM Europe TPC Statement on Contact Tracing
ACM’s Europe Technology Policy Committee issued detailed principles and practices for the development and deployment of contact tracing technology intended to track and arrest the spread of COVID-19. The statement calls on governments that adopt such systems to choose "only those which... respect and protect the rights of all individuals; safeguard personal data and privacy to the highest degree technically possible; and are subject to scrutiny by the scientific community and civil society before, during and after deployment." Read the statement in Italian here and in French here.
ACM Europe TPC Comments on Green Deal
ACM’s Europe Technology Policy Committee submitted comments to the Directorate General for Climate Action of the European Commission in support of the comprehensive and ambitious sweep of the Commission’s Green Deal. ACM Europe TPC strongly concurs with the Commission’s premise that realizing true energy efficiencies in the information and communication technology (ICT) sector will be critical to Europe’s success in meeting the Green Deal’s appropriately aggressive climate targets.
USTPC Issues Statement on Privacy and Security for Virtual Meetings
ACM's US Technology Policy Committee (USTPC) has released a Statement on Security and Privacy Principles for Virtual Meetings in light of changes necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Statement urges urges virtual conferencing platform designers, hosts, and users to adopt eight key security and privacy principles that are intended to greatly heighten the privacy and security not only of conference participants, but also of any transmitted or stored data.
USTPC Joins Call on Election Officials to Avoid Internet Voting
ACM’s US Technology Policy Committee (USTPC) joined many of the nation’s leading experts in cybersecurity, computing, and science in calling on all governors and state election directors to refrain from using any form of internet voting or voting app system in the 2020 elections. The joint open letter includes a detailed analysis prepared by the AAAS Center for Scientific Evidence in Public Issues which clearly demonstrates that internet voting is not a secure solution for voting in the US.
HotTopic Panel on Autonomous Weapons
Once considered science fiction, autonomous weapons systems long ago left the drawing board for the battlefield. Employed in conflicts today, such systems remain controversial and are ungoverned by any broad binding international agreement. The ACM US Technology Policy Committee hosted the HotTopics webinar: "Death by Algorithm: The Use, Control, and Legality of Lethal and Other Autonomous Weapons Systems" with Larry Medsker (Moderator), Ronald C. Arkin, Gary Corn, Jack Shanahan, and Jody Westby discussing this timely and critical subject.
Technology Policy Council Chair, Virginia Dignum
Virginia Dignum has been appointed Chair of ACM's Technology Policy Council, which addresses global technology policy. Dignum is a Professor of Computing Science / Responsible Artificial Intelligence and the Director of the AI Policy Lab at Umeå University, Sweden. She is also a member of the United Nations High Level Advisory Body on AI, whose report was released during the AI with Purpose Summit as part of the Science Summit at the UN General Assembly. She is also Senior Advisor to the Wallenberg Foundations.
Jody Westby Named TechBriefs Committee Chair
Jody Westby has been named ACM's TechBriefs Committee Chair. She is also the Vice Chair of ACM’s US Technology Policy Committee, and founder of Global Cyber Risk LLC, which provides advisory and technical services to organizations in the areas of cyber governance, privacy, cybersecurity, incident response, and digital asset inventories and data mapping. She also serves as Chair of the American Bar Association’s Privacy and Computer Crime Committee (Science & Technology Law Section), co-Chair of the Cybercrime Committee (Criminal Justice Section), and has served four terms on the ABA President’s Cybersecurity Task Force.
Europe Technology Policy Committee Chair, Chris Hankin
The ACM Europe Technology Policy Committee promotes dialogue and the exchange of ideas on technology and computing policy issues with the European Commission, governmental bodies in Europe, and the informatics and computing communities. Chaired by Chris Hankin of Imperial College London, the Committee engages in policy issues related to the importance of technology in boosting jobs, economic growth, competition, investment, research and development, education, inclusive social development, and innovation.
US Technology Policy Committee Chair, Larry Medsker
Larry Medsker has been named Chair of the ACM US Technology Policy Committee effective July 1, 2023. USTPC serves as the focal point for ACM's interaction with US government organizations, the computing community, and the US public in all matters of US public policy related to information technology. Medsker is Research Professor in the Human-Technology Collaboration Lab and PhD program at George Washington University, and Founding Director of its Master's Program in Data Science. He is also Policy Officer for ACM's Special Interest Group on Artificial Intelligence.
Simons Named Chair of US Election Assistance Commission Committee on Election Security
Former ACM President Barbara Simons, who was also a founder of ACM's US Technology Policy Committee, has been appointed Chair of a special committee on election security with the US Election Assistance Commission (EAC). "I am very excited about the opportunity created by the appointment of a new committee of the EAC Board of Advisors on election security," Simons said. "In the policy arena, there’s no more immediate and important topic, and Barbara will lead this effort so well," said Adam Eisgrau, ACM Director of Global Policy and Public Affairs.
US Digital Response Call for Tech Volunteers
US Digital Response is a volunteer-run, non-partisan effort to help federal, state, and local government with technology, data, design, operations, communications, project management, and more during the COVID-19 crisis. This initiative is calling for data scientists, front-end/back-end engineers, designers, engineering managers, product managers, user researchers, and others to lend their skills and expertise to the fight against COVID-19.
USTPC Panel on Section 230 of Communications Decency Act
View a recording of a US Technology Policy Committee (USTPC) panel discussion on Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. Panelists included:
- Mark Rasch, founder of the US DOJ's Computer Crime Unit and Cyber-Forensics practice and frequent media commentator
- Pam Samuelson, ACM Fellow, author of “Legally Speaking” columns for Communications of the ACM, and Richard M. Sherman Distinguished Professor of Law and Information at the University of California, Berkeley
- Danny Weitzner, Chair of USTPC’s Digital Governance Subcommittee and Founding Director of the MIT Internet Policy Research Initiative
Andy Grosso, Chair of USTPC’s Law Subcommittee and former Assistant US Attorney, moderated. The panel, "Section 230: The Origins and Future of Online Content Control and Liability in the US," took place on November 18, 2020 via Zoom and was free and open to all.