{"id":44644,"date":"2022-06-20T04:58:02","date_gmt":"2022-06-20T08:58:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/?post_type=emagazine&p=44644"},"modified":"2022-07-26T10:26:00","modified_gmt":"2022-07-26T14:26:00","slug":"regulation-keeping-pace-technology","status":"publish","type":"emagazine","link":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/secure-futures-magazine\/regulation-keeping-pace-technology\/44644\/","title":{"rendered":"Regulation can keep pace with changing tech. Here’s how."},"content":{"rendered":"

With rising concerns about consumer privacy, anti-competitive business activity<\/a> and the spread of misinformation, public and policymakers\u2019 scrutiny of the high-tech space is intensifying<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Big Tech\u2019s influence is still rising<\/a>. Safety and data privacy laws already struggle to keep up<\/a>. Who should oversee and police the online giants, and how can we ensure privacy and security standards meet what consumers rightly expect?<\/p>\n

The blistering clip of technology<\/h2>\n

If you thought the world moved fast before the pandemic, it\u2019s now positively frantic<\/a>. COVID-19 prompted business to leap forward a technological decade in just three months<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom news, images and videos to apps, games and user-generated content, most material we consume is funneled through the largest technology firms,\u201d Taylor Tresatti, head of industry research for BIZDEV: The International Association for Business Development<\/a>, told me. \u201cMore of the world\u2019s conversations only take place online.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tech firms\u2019 disproportionate influence, alongside concerns about their opaque business practices, raises questions about where responsibility lies for overseeing and governing online worlds.<\/p>\n\t\t\t

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Professional development and Gen Z<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Engage younger employees<\/span><\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/header>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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To engage Millennials and Gen Z in professional development, we must level up the learning offer.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

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Regulatory processes and technological change<\/h2>\n

International law\u2019s often outdated rules, lack of alignment between territories and government bodies<\/a> and ongoing new technology add up to a mess for government and industry leaders. They\u2019re also concerned regulation could throttle innovation<\/a>. Politicians are often quick to play to public fear but slow to understand new technologies\u2019 impacts fully.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese systems are often slow to change and adapt, so they\u2019re at direct odds with the technology they aim to manage,\u201d Tresatti observes. \u201cThat\u2019s before artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning start to drive more exponential industry advancement and growth.\u201d Other fast-moving advancements regulation must consider include robotics, quantum computing and industrial automation.<\/p>\n

Political and public concern not always aligned<\/h2>\n

Political leaders can be part of the problem, Bob Ehrlich, head of consumer insights at Techsavvy, told me. \u201cThese and other virtual boogeymen are hot topics for voters, but politicians also face the challenge of how to keep up with a growing technological arms race among international powers<\/a>.\u201d He expects this to lead to greater regulation in the high-tech space.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, consumer concerns over privacy and data sharing are skyrocketing<\/a>. Even as companies like Apple and Google adopt new privacy measures<\/a>, Meta (formerly Facebook) has fought against them<\/a>. In technologically advanced nations like the US, there\u2019s no comprehensive federal law regulating how most companies collect, store or share customer data<\/a> \u2212 data often prone to compromise or breach by more sophisticated, complex threat actors<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe stage is set for a perfect storm,\u201d says Ehrlich. \u201cFrom back-end oversight and management of data to front-end user experiences, many potential points of failure present themselves. We\u2019ve got to be more thoughtful and make speedier decisions to have any hope of staying on top of this rapidly changing space.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rethinking the future of high-tech regulation<\/h2>\n

To get better at addressing these challenges, I think we must have more informed discussions and make decisions on these topics more often, indeed, routinely. Given their unprecedented scope and influence, we must fundamentally rethink our approach to tackling technology-related issues. Government and IT leaders can use these three approaches.<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Adopt new standards for content sharing<\/h3>\n

Instituting new industry, state and international policy standards and guidelines can help govern content sharing and moderation, data privacy and user security. Active cross-collaboration between agencies and governments would improve regional and international consistency.<\/p>\n

Christchurch Call<\/a> is an example of how heads of state and the tech sector can work together to create effective new standards and processes. The international strategy for removing extremist content from social media fast was developed in the wake of a terrorist attack live-streamed on Facebook in 2019.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Form partnerships between public and private sector<\/h3>\n

We must bring together experts from different industries and policymakers to research, discuss and make recommendations on how to regulate emerging technologies and trends. These charter taskforces or committees should be empowered and resourced to report and recommend to lawmakers more rapidly. They should also include younger voices \u2013 digital natives \u2013 to offer up-to-date insights and perspectives.<\/p>\n

India has already begun working with Google similarly<\/a> to help curb the spread of misinformation.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Turn the focus from past to future<\/h3>\n

Lawmakers should challenge themselves to rely less on historical precedents<\/a> when making decisions. Instead, they could hold future-focused scenario-planning exercises to steer their decision-making around emerging technological use-cases and concerns.<\/p>\n

Screening processes and regular training would help ensure key decision-makers have contemporary, working tech knowledge.<\/p>\n

The lawmakers\u2019 role should also involve finding and closing the loopholes in legal and regulatory frameworks that unscrupulous actors exploit. Already, the US has convened task forces to help plan for and tackle topics like AI and robotics<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Keeping tabs on tomorrow\u2019s world<\/h2>\n

More regulatory oversight and governance is obviously coming soon in the IT space, but it needn\u2019t hinder industry growth or advancement. Partnerships between technology sector firms, lawmakers and industry bodies can mean opportunities to fast-track innovation while giving customers a more positive high-tech experience.<\/p>\n

As a futurist who\u2019s helped over 1,500 businesses and government agencies adapt to challenges like these<\/a>, I know ensuring regulation and law keep up with technological change isn\u2019t impossible. We must get more government and industry leaders on the same page and promote teamwork and collaboration between the public and private sectors.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen everyone with a stake in the technology ecosystem works in tandem, it creates a more stable playing field and more chances to benefit industry players and everyday consumers,\u201d says Ehrlich. \u201cFrom organization and government leaders\u2019 perspectives, finding more harmonious ways to collaborate at every turn is a meaningful upgrade worth pursuing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Regulation has failed consumers by not keeping pace with technological change. But if we change our mindsets and processes, the future could be different.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2662,"featured_media":44652,"template":"","coauthors":[4151],"class_list":{"0":"post-44644","1":"emagazine","2":"type-emagazine","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"emagazine-category-digital-transformation","7":"emagazine-category-emerging-tech","8":"emagazine-category-future-tech","9":"emagazine-tag-big-tech","10":"emagazine-tag-government","11":"emagazine-tag-regulation"},"hreflang":[{"hreflang":"x-default","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/secure-futures-magazine\/regulation-keeping-pace-technology\/44644\/"}],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/emagazine\/44644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/emagazine"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/emagazine"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2662"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=44644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}