July 2023 Privacy Points

State CPO Leadership Summit

Earlier this month I attended a chief privacy officer leadership summit in Rancho Mirage, California, along with state CPOs from around the country, where we discussed approaches to privacy governance, privacy technology, privacy impact assessments, data share agreements, and generative artificial intelligence (AI). 

One of my main takeaways, aside from a new appreciation for air conditioning during the 115-degree heat wave, is the growing value of privacy programs in state government and the importance of cross-collaboration with our partners on project initiatives that process the personal data of our residents.

Public trust is crucial to provide government services and the proper treatment of personal data by respecting privacy is foundational in earning that trust. I want to thank my peers for sharing their perspectives and learnings so we can all grow and improve together.

Learning about other state privacy program challenges and successes is so valuable to improving privacy in Washington.

Artificial Intelligence

WaTech is working to produce interim guidelines for state and local government agencies regarding approaches to responsible use of generative AI in government.

Our work is based on resources already available in the public domain including the NIST AI Risk Management Framework, the Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights, AI ethics guidelines by the EU, OECD, and Australia, Industry AI principles by Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI and other generative AI guidelines by the City of Seattle, the City of Boston, and Washington State University. We expect to have the guidelines available next month and plan to host a webinar to share and discuss them. The webinar date and details are being finalized.

In case you missed it

The Office of Privacy and Data Protection’s webinar held in June on facial recognition is now available for viewing online. Thanks to our own Matt King for his enlightening and excellent presentation on facial recognition technologies and the practical and legal considerations for implementation. If you are unable to attend, the recording and slide deck are available on our website.

See you next month with more updates!

Katy Ruckle
State Chief Privacy Officer