By Blake Jones, POLITICO
With help from Alfred Ng
TUNE IN, OPT OUT: Artificial intelligence can help decide whether you get a job, bank loan or housing — but such uses of the technology could soon be limited in California.
Regulations proposed today would allow Californians to opt out of allowing their data to be used in that sort of automated decision making. The draft rules, floated by the California Privacy Protection Agency, would also let people request information on how automated decisions about them were made.
“Automated decision making technologies and artificial intelligence have the potential to transform key aspects of our lives,” Ashkan Soltani, the CPPA’s executive director, said in a statement. “We’re proud that California is meeting the moment by giving consumers more control over these technologies.”
It’s the agency’s first crack at regulating the emerging technology, but it comes from a familiar mold.
California requires other products, including cellphone applications and social media platforms, to give users the chance to opt out of sharing personal data. The draft rule would, if approved as written, extend similar requirements to the buzzy sphere of AI as California privacy advocates and lawmakers look for ways to move faster than Congress in regulating the technology.
“Overall, they are a strong start that give people more power over their personal information in areas where discrimination has been proliferating,” Justin Kloczko of Consumer Watchdog wrote of the proposal in an email blast earlier today. “The regulations also provide a much-needed notice to consumers informing them about their opt-out and disclosure rights.”
Businesses that use AI to build profiles about people, including job applicants, students and patrons of malls, sports stadiums and cafes, would also be subject to the rules — as would businesses that use AI to target people for advertising and for profiling people under the age of 16.
Industry lobbyists, though, have already sought to narrow the scope of the rules to exclude AI-assisted decisions that are made with human involvement.
“The opt-out right should be limited to fully-automated decisions and only to final decisions,” TechNet, an industry group representing companies like Apple, Amazon, Google and Meta, said in an initial public comment on the issue in March.
TechNet’s executive director for California and the Southwest, Dylan Hoffman,said in a statement today that the group was still reviewing the regulations and would submit further comments to the agency as it begins formal rulemaking.
The agency’s board will weigh the proposal at a Dec. 8 meeting, with plans to start that formal rulemaking next year.
