· Prepare Input Data:

1 The exercise of data procurement, management, and organization should uphold the legal frameworks and standards of data privacy. Data privacy and security protect information from a wide range of threats. 2 The confidentiality of data ensures that information is accessible only to those who are authorized to access the information and that there are specific controls that manage the delegation of authority. 3 Designers and engineers of the AI system must exhibit the appropriate levels of integrity to safeguard the accuracy and completeness of information and processing methods to ensure that the privacy and security legal framework and standards are followed. They should also ensure that the availability and storage of data are protected through suitable security database systems. 4 All processed data should be classified to ensure that it receives the appropriate level of protection in accordance with its sensitivity or security classification and that AI system developers and owners are aware of the classification or sensitivity of the information they are handling and the associated requirements to keep it secure. All data shall be classified in terms of business requirements, criticality, and sensitivity in order to prevent unauthorized disclosure or modification. Data classification should be conducted in a contextual manner that does not result in the inference of personal information. Furthermore, de identification mechanisms should be employed based on data classification as well as requirements relating to data protection laws. 5 Data backups and archiving actions should be taken in this stage to align with business continuity, disaster recovery and risk mitigation policies.
Principle: AI Ethics Principles, Sept 14, 2022

Published by SDAIA

Related Principles

5. Privacy and Data Governance

AI systems should have proper mechanisms in place to ensure data privacy and protection and maintain and protect the quality and integrity of data throughout their entire lifecycle. Data protocols need to be set up to govern who can access data and when data can be accessed. Data privacy and protection should be respected and upheld during the design, development, and deployment of AI systems. The way data is collected, stored, generated, and deleted throughout the AI system lifecycle must comply with applicable data protection laws, data governance legislation, and ethical principles. Some data protection and privacy laws in ASEAN include Malaysia’s Personal Data Protection Act 2010, the Philippines’ Data Privacy Act of 2012, Singapore’s Personal Data Protection Act 2012, Thailand’s Personal Data Protection Act 2019, Indonesia’s Personal Data Protection Law 2022, and Vietnam’s Personal Data Protection Decree 2023. Organisations should be transparent about their data collection practices, including the types of data collected, how it is used, and who has access to it. Organisations should ensure that necessary consent is obtained from individuals before collecting, using, or disclosing personal data for AI development and deployment, or otherwise have appropriate legal basis to collect, use or disclose personal data without consent. Unnecessary or irrelevant data should not be gathered to prevent potential misuse. Data protection and governance frameworks should be set up and adhered to by developers and deployers of AI systems. These frameworks should also be periodically reviewed and updated in accordance with applicable privacy and data protection laws. For example, data protection impact assessments (DPIA) help organisations determine how data processing systems, procedures, or technologies affect individuals’ privacy and eliminate risks that might violate compliance7. However, it is important to note that DPIAs are much narrower in scope than an overall impact assessment for use of AI systems and are not sufficient as an AI risk assessment. Other components will need to be considered for a full assessment of risks associated with AI systems. Developers and deployers of AI systems should also incorporate a privacy by design principle when developing and deploying AI systems. Privacy by design is an approach that embeds privacy in every stage of the system development lifecycle. Data privacy is essential in gaining the public’s trust in technological advances. Another consideration is investing in privacy enhancing technologies to preserve privacy while allowing personal data to be used for innovation. Privacy enhancing technologies include, but are not limited to, differential privacy, where small changes are made to raw data to securely de identify inputs without having a significant impact on the results of the AI system, and zero knowledge proofs (ZKP), where ZKP hide the underlying data and answer simple questions about whether something is true or false without revealing additional information

Published by ASEAN in ASEAN Guide on AI Governance and Ethics, 2024

III. Privacy and Data Governance

Privacy and data protection must be guaranteed at all stages of the AI system’s life cycle. Digital records of human behaviour may allow AI systems to infer not only individuals’ preferences, age and gender but also their sexual orientation, religious or political views. To allow individuals to trust the data processing, it must be ensured that they have full control over their own data, and that data concerning them will not be used to harm or discriminate against them. In addition to safeguarding privacy and personal data, requirements must be fulfilled to ensure high quality AI systems. The quality of the data sets used is paramount to the performance of AI systems. When data is gathered, it may reflect socially constructed biases, or contain inaccuracies, errors and mistakes. This needs to be addressed prior to training an AI system with any given data set. In addition, the integrity of the data must be ensured. Processes and data sets used must be tested and documented at each step such as planning, training, testing and deployment. This should also apply to AI systems that were not developed in house but acquired elsewhere. Finally, the access to data must be adequately governed and controlled.

Published by European Commission in Key requirements for trustworthy AI, Apr 8, 2019

Plan and Design:

1 The planning and design of the AI system and its associated algorithm must be configured and modelled in a manner such that there is respect for the protection of the privacy of individuals, personal data is not misused and exploited, and the decision criteria of the automated technology is not based on personally identifying characteristics or information. 2 The use of personal information should be limited only to that which is necessary for the proper functioning of the system. The design of AI systems resulting in the profiling of individuals or communities may only occur if approved by Chief Compliance and Ethics Officer, Compliance Officer or in compliance with a code of ethics and conduct developed by a national regulatory authority for the specific sector or industry. 3 The security and protection blueprint of the AI system, including the data to be processed and the algorithm to be used, should be aligned to best practices to be able to withstand cyberattacks and data breach attempts. 4 Privacy and security legal frameworks and standards should be followed and customized for the particular use case or organization. 5 An important aspect of privacy and security is data architecture; consequently, data classification and profiling should be planned to define the levels of protection and usage of personal data. 6 Security mechanisms for de identification should be planned for the sensitive or personal data in the system. Furthermore, read write update actions should be authorized for the relevant groups.

Published by SDAIA in AI Ethics Principles, Sept 14, 2022

· Build and Validate:

1 Privacy and security by design should be implemented while building the AI system. The security mechanisms should include the protection of various architectural dimensions of an AI model from malicious attacks. The structure and modules of the AI system should be protected from unauthorized modification or damage to any of its components. 2 The AI system should be secure to ensure and maintain the integrity of the information it processes. This ensures that the system remains continuously functional and accessible to authorized users. It is crucial that the system safeguards confidential and private information, even under hostile or adversarial conditions. Furthermore, appropriate measures should be in place to ensure that AI systems with automated decision making capabilities uphold the necessary data privacy and security standards. 3 The AI System should be tested to ensure that the combination of available data does not reveal the sensitive data or break the anonymity of the observation. Deploy and Monitor: 1 After the deployment of the AI system, when its outcomes are realized, there must be continuous monitoring to ensure that the AI system is privacy preserving, safe and secure. The privacy impact assessment and risk management assessment should be continuously revisited to ensure that societal and ethical considerations are regularly evaluated. 2 AI System Owners should be accountable for the design and implementation of AI systems in such a way as to ensure that personal information is protected throughout the life cycle of the AI system. The components of the AI system should be updated based on continuous monitoring and privacy impact assessment.

Published by SDAIA in AI Ethics Principles, Sept 14, 2022

3 Ensure transparency, explainability and intelligibility

AI should be intelligible or understandable to developers, users and regulators. Two broad approaches to ensuring intelligibility are improving the transparency and explainability of AI technology. Transparency requires that sufficient information (described below) be published or documented before the design and deployment of an AI technology. Such information should facilitate meaningful public consultation and debate on how the AI technology is designed and how it should be used. Such information should continue to be published and documented regularly and in a timely manner after an AI technology is approved for use. Transparency will improve system quality and protect patient and public health safety. For instance, system evaluators require transparency in order to identify errors, and government regulators rely on transparency to conduct proper, effective oversight. It must be possible to audit an AI technology, including if something goes wrong. Transparency should include accurate information about the assumptions and limitations of the technology, operating protocols, the properties of the data (including methods of data collection, processing and labelling) and development of the algorithmic model. AI technologies should be explainable to the extent possible and according to the capacity of those to whom the explanation is directed. Data protection laws already create specific obligations of explainability for automated decision making. Those who might request or require an explanation should be well informed, and the educational information must be tailored to each population, including, for example, marginalized populations. Many AI technologies are complex, and the complexity might frustrate both the explainer and the person receiving the explanation. There is a possible trade off between full explainability of an algorithm (at the cost of accuracy) and improved accuracy (at the cost of explainability). All algorithms should be tested rigorously in the settings in which the technology will be used in order to ensure that it meets standards of safety and efficacy. The examination and validation should include the assumptions, operational protocols, data properties and output decisions of the AI technology. Tests and evaluations should be regular, transparent and of sufficient breadth to cover differences in the performance of the algorithm according to race, ethnicity, gender, age and other relevant human characteristics. There should be robust, independent oversight of such tests and evaluation to ensure that they are conducted safely and effectively. Health care institutions, health systems and public health agencies should regularly publish information about how decisions have been made for adoption of an AI technology and how the technology will be evaluated periodically, its uses, its known limitations and the role of decision making, which can facilitate external auditing and oversight.

Published by World Health Organization (WHO) in Key ethical principles for use of artificial intelligence for health, Jun 28, 2021