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LexisNexis, Human Rights Commission team up for freedom and tech project
Leading solutions provider LexisNexis is to partner with the Australian Human Rights Commission on a landmark inquiry into the status of rights and freedoms in a new technological world involving artificial intelligence, social media and big data.
Jerome Doraisamy
The inquiry — which will see the AHRC produce an Issues Paper in late July, before commencing a broad community consultation phase from industry, academia, civil society and government — will make detailed recommendations in late 2019 of solutions to challenges presented by continual technological innovation as well as identifying mechanisms in which technology can entrench the protection of rights.
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According to LexisNexis executive director of emerging markets and corporate Myfanwy Wallwork, the provider is looking forward to helping develop a “pragmatic framework” through which rights and freedoms can be protected in the digital age.
“The recent implementation of GDPR legislation and the Cambridge Analytica scandal have brought the topic of data, technology and human rights to the forefront of popular debate,” she said.
“We have also seen examples where technology and the legislature can complement each other to support the protection of human rights, such as the use of blockchain to identify provenance of goods and services as part of the new Modern Slavery Act reporting requirements.”
"It is important for any project to ensure that recommended outcomes are able to be acted upon effectively – and this becomes essential when something as significant as the protection of human rights," she added.
LexisNexis Australia general manager Simon Wilkins said the provider’s goal as a project partner will be to assist in the creation of a governance model with the mandate to monitor “responsible innovation, particularly relating to the deployment of AI and related data driven technologies”.
“This model will ensure that technologies such as the machine learning are able to benefit society and businesses without having negative impacts,” he said.
“Data-driven and AI-based technologies must be developed in a way that promotes transparency and fairness for all, and ensure that existing inequalities are not reinforced.”
Ms Wallwork supported this, noting: "Whilst personal data can be used to improve services, analysis using algorithms can also create valid concerns about differential treatment of individuals or harmful impacts on vulnerable communities."
"It’s important to understand what rights people have about how decisions are made using their data, and what rights people have in knowing what information is being used to make those decisions," she concluded.
LexisNexis is one of four major project partners for the AHRC, alongside the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the University of Technology, Sydney, and Herbert Smith Freehills.
