UK Issues Report on Data Protection Implications of Emerging Technologies
The U.K. Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) published its Tech Horizons 2025 report, identifying privacy and data protection implications of four emerging technologies: (1) connected transport, (2) quantum sensing and imaging, (3) digital diagnostics, therapeutics and healthcare infrastructure (such as AI-assisted diagnosis) and (4) synthetic media (partly or wholly generated using AI/machine learning) and its identification and detection.
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The technologies present unique opportunities and potential benefits for the environment and people's health, well-being and mobility, the ICO said. However, some of the trends highlighted in previous Tech Horizons reports still apply, it added.
One trend is that emerging technologies are revealing novel kinds of information about people, from brain patterns to driving fatigue, so organizations developing the technologies must build in safeguards to ensure data protection by design and default.
In addition, the ICO said, many new technologies collect and process increasingly large amounts of personal information, making it imperative that organizations explain what they're collecting, how they're using it and why.
Moreover, the office said, new technologies are being developed and used by an ever-wider range of parties, leading to a lack of transparency and accountability. The growing number of innovators developing and interacting with new technologies creates complex networks, making it harder for people to understand who is processing their data and how to exercise their data protection rights.
The earlier the privacy and data protection implications of emerging technologies are identified, the earlier the ICO can provide timely regulatory advice and help innovators embed safeguards into the design phase, it said.