Privacy Talk with Hector Dominguez, Open Data Coordinator at the city of Portland, : What do you envision for the future Portland Open Data Program and privacy by design?
“This interview recorded on 31th March 2023 is talking about privacy and digital marketing.”
Kohei is having great time discussing smart city and privacy.
This interview outline:
- How do you predict and assess privacy risk for citizens?
- What do you envision for the future Portland Open Data Program and privacy by design?
- Message to listeners
- How do you predict and assess privacy risk for citizens?
Hector: So risk assessment means in the US have a really long history, right? So they’re actually defined in 1974, Privacy Act. It’s 1974, what a really long time, right?
And they have been evolving, so obviously, doing a risk assessment. Privacy risk assessment in 1974, what is very different to doing a risk assessment now, if somebody took a picture on the street in 1974, you just have a pre and after that you don’t know anything about the people in the background of the picture. And only you have the group of friends and family. they have access with it.
Now, anyone takes a picture with your smartphone. A backend application may actually be doing face recognition, identification of people here and there. The file, geotag or the phone, whatever other system has access to that information knows where that was taking what kind of device, tool kit.
I mean, there is a lot of information around that. right. So what we did with privacy risk assessments again based similarly to what we do in general is when we start looking into what’s existing,
Who’s doing what, and then I think there was another big factor there because when we started designing our risk assessment process, COVID happened.
That was early 2020. So, Covid happened and one of the very first issue back in early 2020 was all these apps coming out to the world, claiming that they could actually be like contact tracing like tracking people with COVID tracking people with symptoms, telling everybody when somebody was contagious, privacy rights.
So one of the first questions is how we can actually protect people’s data and information at the same time. To be aware of that sold us applications when used properly, they can actually stop or slow down a risk of a pandemic.
That didn’t happen, obviously. But we started asking all these different questions, some of these issues around the type of technology that we were using who has access to the information, these are the applicable workers in a Labor Office, facing labor laws, we need fto come into consideration for that, or is commercial app that is doing that or is really something that the clinic is actually doing it for medical purposes. So there is a lot of context there.
And then I think the first stage is, we need to understand what is the context and that’s the first preliminary assessment that we do is about that.
So we will try to understand what the assessment is and then once we understand okay, maybe this case is not going to be collecting too much personal information, it is very constrained or law is not the surveillance technologies.
Let’s do this a small assessment and we check, we are all done, we all good. Highly risk applications, okay, we need them to do something deeper, what we can do.
At this time, we’re actually using the City of Seattle’s templates for that and they have three and five years like advantage from us so we don’t have to reinvent anything Seattle has done and we adapted.
The framework in Seattle is different again, because that’s a different state. So they are Washington laws. We need to translate that into Oregon laws. That’s fine. Then, some of the privacy assessments that we do for data, actually coming from San Francisco.
San Francisco has a data toolkit. And some of these tools are actually for privacy assessment of data. So we have been using some of those also adapting the same thing we adapt those and we use it in our processes. Now is the latest that we are trying to do is to standardize.
Seattle, for instance, the current assessment we have six different subject areas in which we do the assessment that we are trying to standardize it and say, That’s the question, should we still have these six subject areas should we use a more like a human rights approach? For doing the impact assessment? We don’t know we haven’t done analysis.
The other thing is how we can automate the whole process. So what kind of application because when we do the assessment, in our case, practically speaking, I start with assessment. I collect the initial information I get from the six different subject areas.
I started looking into what are the risks and impacts then I can complete a first round of the assessment. This document goes to our colleagues in the Office of Equity and Human Rights, where he’s being reviewed through a lens of civil liberties, civil rights, human rights.
He goes in order to our city attorneys, they review the legal context of the assessment, and they get all the feedback and comments I put together for the final report. That’s probably this out, now there is a lot of subjectivity in doing risk assessment.
So the latest also we’re trying to do is try to remove that subjectivity by creating a taxonomy of risks. That’s why we also do it right now.
So creating a taxonomy of different risks and regardless of who does those assessments, so we actually understand the risks and we cannot make the connections and we understand how we can compare apples to apples for the specific technology.
So if it’s not only the Hector is doing the assessment with my expertise, I may have a lot of blind spots. It doesn’t matter. So if it’s somebody else, the other person should come up with the same or very similar assessment regardless. So, trying to remove that subjectivity is kind of one of our goals right now.
Kohei: That’s interesting that the you starting out in this do is invited a different perspective into the assessment. Not just for the privacy but also the many concerns with the citizens. Then if you put out the more comprehensive taxonomies it’s very easy to assess in a different perspective that they’re very knowledgeable for the other cities as well.
Thank you for sharing your insight. So I think you have a very great mission and open data programs and privacy by design. Because Open Data is good for the citizens to process the data for the public interest.
In this sense you mentioned, privacy is a key part of elements and the European law, which are designing and default is very critical to protect human rights. So could you share about your envision for Portland future of Open Data Program then privacy by design?
- What do you envision for the future Portland Open Data Program and privacy by design?
Hector: Well, this is a landscape that is changing very often. So 2020 again, COVID happened. We were in different states trying to figure things out. Now we are in 2023. We have all these us around ChatGBT applications are have artificial intelligence in a more mature stage right?
And then at the same time, we are having all these different cases coming to our doors right. In Portland, for instance, two years ago, we had a heat dome, where the city actually was the hottest place on earth. All these regions, we were actually 49 degrees C and almost 50 degrees C for three days.
（Movie: Portland Records Hottest Day Ever Amid Brutal Heat Wave In Northwest）
Three days that were unbelievable and unbearable to us. We have a number of people that are here and many of those in my neighborhood, which you know, is what happens when you work locally. These things happen very close to you. We have climate change. We have a crisis around housing, right.
Renters and people who don’t own a house they usually displace. We have all these different issues we potentially always need to be prepared for earthquakes. We need to be prepared for things happening here.
And those kinds of worlds are colliding. So my vision for the future is just to try to be ready with the tools that we could use to try to resolve all these larger issues, you know, around climate change around a human rights, human rights or having a decent housing right for education.
A right for being all and having a reasonable life. We are all right, like healthcare, also healthcare for women. And he doesn’t matter who you are. If you are black, if you are a woman, if you have any disability, you’re an immigrant.
So in our city, we all should be welcome or feel welcome and should have access to all these different benefits of the city provide, you know, in general, that’s kind of my vision and my dream. I hope that technology could actually help us to get there.
And we cannot do it just, you know, individually, we need to talk to each other and that’s why we’re also constantly trying all these different engagement tools, creating the spaces for coming together and starting talking to each other.
We know we are different, right? We have different interests. And but without talking to each other, we simply this is not going to work. So we need to talk to each other. I hope technology can help everybody on that forgotten.
Kohei: Oh, I didn’t know that. The numbers of temperature are going up high in Portland. But obviously the coming of the climate crisis.
Hector: And also air quality also like forest fires often. It is very often we are all also the worst air quality in the world. Also two years ago, because of forest fires, air quality usually you know the regular media goes up to 300–700 in the sky was completely red like it was not available outside.
Kohei: Thank you Yeah, that’s anxieties in the next decades. We should solve the problems. Of course the technology, but also some of our actions from civil rights. So thank you for sharing.
Lastly, could you share any message to the listeners? I think you have the varieties of experiences and also the initiatives so far and that’s very helpful for listening? Then also they’re very happy to collaborate in some ways.
- Message to listeners
Hector: I think I’m also understanding the way in which we relate to technology is a very cultural base. So different cultures. They relate to technology differently and of course through age, right?
It’s not the same when an elderly person goes and interacts with a smartphone or any piece of technology here and there are young people, teenager, for instance, interacting with the technology, understanding what kind of information goes across who is on the other side of the technology, who has access to information.
So that’s a lot of work in thinking and it’s even worse when you know if your context is that you are a single mom, having three kids that you need to take care of and then take them to school and you are not going to be thinking about artificial intelligence at all.
But rather I think we can actually start kind of sharing all these different experiences. I think that’s the value of this collective network. Understanding I would love one day very soon to go back to Japan.
And I also share all these different experiences with colleagues there in Japan. I would love to host people from Japan here in Portland. I mean, you’re welcome to visit us to contact our office and visit our https://www.smartcitypdx.com/ website. And send us an email, join our social network in the City of Portland.
I think it has a lot of projects like these to offer. So the city is working on sustainability issues, emergency preparedness, housing, transportation, so I think we can learn a lot from each other and I’m looking forward to all those conversations in the future.
Kohei: Thank you for sharing your last message. It’s a very good time to collaborate. In a way getting out from all the social crisis to solve this problem by sharing the insights together. So that’s great to speak with you at this moment.
Thank you for having Hector this time. Happy to engage with you for the future.
Hector: Thank you for having me.
Kohei: Thank you.
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