Governance challenges posed by new technology

How can businesses safely harness the power of emerging technologies such as facial recognition and machine learning in an ethical way that is not intrusive on personal rights? And how can they also respond to the changing risk landscape to increase cybersecurity protections? Professor Edward Santow, Director - Policy & Governance at the Human Technology Institute, who will speak at AICD’s Australian Governance Summit (AGS) in March, outlines what directors need to know about new governance challenges in technology. Register now to attend #AGS2023 in Melbourne on March 1 and 2.

Recent cybersecurity incidents which comprised Optus and Medibank data privacy reflect a risk landscape which is changing fast, according to Professor Edward Santow, Director - Policy & Governance at the Human Technology Institute.

“A few years ago, it was very rare for any kind of cyber breach to take place,” he told the AICD in a recent interview. “We're now seeing an increasing number of companies, as well as government agencies that are unfortunately dealing with cyber criminals.”

What companies need to do is respond to the changing risk landscape by increasing their protections, but also ask fundamental questions about what personal information they need to hold, under what conditions and for how long, he says.

New technologies such as facial recognition technology are also exciting but present potential governance challenges. “We use it often without thinking in our smartphones at the international border and in a whole range of other situations. And often those use cases are reasonably safe,” Santow told the AICD.

“But we also know companies are starting to roll it out quite a long way. So, using facial recognition in more exotic use cases, perhaps to identify potential shoplifters, to try and assess people's faces for insights about their mood or how responsible they are… those areas are incredibly experimental, much more prone to error, and are much more intrusive on people's privacy and other rights.”