The MIT Internet Policy Research Initiative (IRPI) in collaboration with the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) have launched a new initiative on data privacy. The MIT Future of Data, Trust, and Privacy initiative aims to bring together MIT research with public policy expertise. 

“The confluence of powerful data analytics, artificial intelligence, and global information platforms together with changing social attitudes about personal data are transforming both the policy and technology landscape,” MIT CSAIL wrote in a post

The groups hope the initiative will enable industry partners to work with MIT researchers to inform policy on privacy issues, understand the implications of new privacy laws, and lead a global dialogue with policymakers, civil society, and industry leaders. 

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Research areas that the MIT Future of Data, Trust, and Privacy will focus on include database systems, applied cryptography, AI and machine learning, data portability and new information architectures, and human-computer interaction. 

In addition, the initiative will help expand academic offerings on privacy topics and will create an educational series designed for privacy professionals.

“The goal is to solve challenging problems of collaborative data analytics and machine learning where sharing data provides significant benefit to all participants, while also preserving strong privacy protections,” said  Srini Devadas, professor at MIT and co-director of the MIT Future of Data, Trust, and Privacy initiative.