The guide addresses concerns raised by industry players about AI-related data privacy and public awareness. PHOTO: ST FILE

Osmond Chia

UPDATED MAR 24, 2024, 10:24 AM

SINGAPORE – Consumers should be told how and why their personal data is being used in a company’s artificial intelligence (AI) systems, even if they already gave prior consent, under new personal data protection guidelines here.

Users should be told why their data is relevant to the service provided, and what kind of indicators are likely to influence decisions made by the AI. For instance, users of a streaming service should be told that their viewing history data is used to make better movie recommendations, based on the genre or films that they watched multiple times.

The guidelines, titled Advisory Guidelines on use of Personal Data in AI Recommendation and Decision Systems, were published by the Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPC) on March 1.

They address concerns raised by industry players about issues related to training AI models, such as data privacy. While not legally binding, the guidelines offer best practices for how firms should handle personal data and inform customers of its use.

They make clear that once users’ personal data has been collected in accordance with the Personal Data Protection Act, it may be used in the company’s research or to improve its business without further consent. 

This includes training an AI model’s understanding of customer preferences, such as in systems that automatically assign jobs to platform workers like food delivery riders. It may also apply to human resources systems that recommend potential candidates by matching information they provide to the type of job.

They address concerns raised by industry players about issues related to training AI models, such as data privacy. While not legally binding, the guidelines offer best practices for how firms should handle personal data and inform customers of its use.

They make clear that once users’ personal data has been collected in accordance with the Personal Data Protection Act, it may be used in the company’s research or to improve its business without further consent. 

This includes training an AI model’s understanding of customer preferences, such as in systems that automatically assign jobs to platform workers like food delivery riders. It may also apply to human resources systems that recommend potential candidates by matching information they provide to the type of job.

Source: https://www.straitstimes.com/tech/user-should-be-informed-when-personal-data-used-to-train-ai-systems-new-pdpc-guidelines