The Office of Personnel Management maintains a large amount of data on current and former federal employees.
This is a full-time job that ensures that sensitive information about federal employees and retirees gets to the right people at the right time, without falling into the wrong hands.
But as the federal government ramps up its use of artificial intelligence tools, data privacy efforts will only become more complex.
Kirsten Moncada, OPM’s chief privacy officer and longtime federal privacy expert, said the rise of AI tools in government is sure to increase the workload of privacy officers across the government. Ta.
“The impact of AI on privacy and all information management practices is huge. Because AI runs on data, it is clearly only going to grow in scale. And like any other type of application, We need to make sure that that data is used and processed in a way that is fair and protects individual privacy,” Moncada said in a recent interview.
President Joe Biden’s AI executive order last October called on the federal government to step up its use of the emerging technology, but also required agencies to put guardrails in place to protect privacy and civil liberties. .
“Artificial intelligence makes it easier to extract, re-identify, link, infer, and act on sensitive information about people’s identities, locations, habits, and desires,” the executive order states. “Artificial intelligence capabilities in these areas may increase the risk of personal data being misused and exposed.”
To combat this risk, the executive order directs government agencies to ensure that data collection, use, and retention is “lawful, secure, and reduces privacy and confidentiality risks.” .
Moncada, a career federal employee with more than 30 years of service, said the rise of AI will increase the job of chief privacy officers in a manner similar to other technological innovations over the past few decades. However, in some cases, AI can create new and emerging challenges.
“The benefits of technology and data capabilities have historically always created more work for privacy professionals,” Moncada said, noting that the federal government’s use of computers in the 1970s began in 1974. He added that it created the Privacy Act. ““AI is still new, so there will be new things coming out, but we don’t even know what they are yet,” she added.
Federal privacy agencies saw a similar surge in work at the dawn of the Internet age in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
“There’s one thing about technology, and then it plateaus. Then something else happens. With the advent of AI, we’re constantly on the upswing in terms of increasing workload and complexity. , but in reality, the same philosophy and analysis is being implemented in new applications and environments,” Moncada said.
Prior to joining OPM last September, Mr. Moncada served as Director of Privacy at the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) and Chair of the Federal Privacy Council.
Moncada said the council is working with other interagency bodies, such as the Federal Council of Chief Information Officers and the Federal Council of Chief Data Officers, to understand the challenges and opportunities of technologies such as AI. He said there was.
“We need data to do our jobs. And of course, as our data capabilities have improved, we can now extract even more value from our data. But of course, we need to comply with laws and policies.” We need to ensure that information is used fairly, maintains public trust and, in particular, how we treat personally identifiable information.”
Moncada said it takes bringing all these groups together to strike the right balance between easily sharing data between government agencies while ensuring that data-sharing efforts meet legal privacy requirements. He said it is essential to do so.
“I think sometimes people worry that if you bring in privacy, they’ll be told they can’t do anything. And what we’re really trying to do is say, ‘Well, of course, there’s something in the law. You can’t do something if it says you can’t do it.” But often it’s not a “yes” or “no”, it’s “here’s how to do it in a way that’s fair and private and protects people while still capturing value and innovating.” We are all here to serve. ”
Moncada also served as the Executive Director of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the Social Security Administration’s Office of Privacy and Disclosure, and the first Director of the Department of Justice’s Office of Privacy and Civil Liberties.
“As federal privacy professionals, what we really think about the essence of our work is to ensure trust in government and maintain trust in the people we serve,” Moncada said. Stated.
OPM and the federal government have doubled down on cybersecurity and data privacy efforts since 2015, when the country suffered a major data breach.
OPM data compromised the personally identifiable information (PII) of approximately 22 million current and former federal employees and job applicants.
In October 2022, a federal judge awarded a $63 million settlement to individuals affected by the OPM data breach.
“It’s really important that our privacy and security people work closely together. And here at OPM, we can say that our privacy and security teams work very closely together and in alignment. I’m really happy. It’s great,” Moncada said.
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