R Street paper trumpets AI benefits in data security

A paper released March 6 by the R Street Institute “explores how AI can enhance data protection by facilitating and improving privacy-enhancing technology, data impact assessments, data minimization, and data security.”

The paper “analyzes specific AI-driven applications, like differential privacy, federated learning, and homomorphic encryption, which enable organizations to extract valuable insights while maintaining strong privacy guarantees. It also examines AI’s potential to improve privacy and consent frameworks by demystifying complicated privacy notices and increasing consumer awareness and transparency.”

Among its recommendations: pass a federal data privacy law with “strong pre-emption” of state standards; establish flexible AI policies that follow “free-market and limited-government principles”; and provide incentives for development of privacy enhancing technologies, suggesting the use of grant programs through the National Science Foundation, National Institute of Standards and Technology and Department of Homeland Security.

R Street is a free market-oriented think tank focused on “pragmatic” solutions to “complex public policy challenges through free markets and limited, effective government.”

The paper concludes, “The path forward requires carefully crafted policies that balance innovation with responsive and agile guardrails. Industry leaders and policymakers have an opportunity to establish privacy standards and best practices. Taking proactive steps in this process can ensure that technological progress and privacy protection advance together, serving society’s best interests while fostering continued innovation.”