Risks to privacy

Sub-category

Risk Domain

2Privacy & Security

2.1Compromise of privacy by leaking or correctly inferring sensitive information

AI systems that memorize and leak sensitive personal data or infer private information about individuals without their consent. Unexpected or unauthorized sharing of data and information can compromise user expectation of privacy, assist identity theft, or cause loss of confidential intellectual property.

"General- purpose AI systems can cause or contribute to violations of user privacy. Violations can occur inadvertently during the training or usage of AI systems, for example through unauthorised processing of personal data or leaking health records used in training. But violations can also happen deliberately through the use of general- purpose AI by malicious actors; for example, if they use AI to infer private facts or violate security."(p. 139)

Entity— Who or what caused the harm

Human

Due to a decision or action made by humans

AI system

Due to a decision or action made by an AI system

Other

Due to some other reason or is ambiguous

Intent— Whether the harm was intentional or accidental

Intentional

Due to an expected outcome from pursuing a goal

Unintentional

Due to an unexpected outcome from pursuing a goal

Other

Without clearly specifying the intentionality

Timing— Whether the risk is pre- or post-deployment

Pre-deployment

Occurring before the AI is deployed

Post-deployment

Occurring after the AI model has been trained and deployed

Other

Without a clearly specified time of occurrence

Supporting Evidence (3)

"General- purpose AI sometimes leaks sensitive information acquired during training or while interacting with users. Sensitive information that was in the training data can leak unintentionally when a user interacts with the model. In addition, when users share sensitive information with the model to achieve more personalised responses, this information can also leak or be exposed to unauthorised third parties."(p. 139)

"Malicious actors can use general- purpose AI to aid in the violation of privacy. AI systems can facilitate more efficient and effective searches for sensitive data and can infer and extract information about specific individuals from large amounts of data. This is further exacerbated by the cybersecurity risks created by general- purpose AI systems (see 2.1.3. Cyber offence)."(p. 139)

"General- purpose AI poses various risks to privacy. These are very broadly categorised into: ● Training risks: risks related to training and the collection of data (especially sensitive data). ● Use risks: risks related to AI systems’ handling of sensitive information during use. ● Intentional harm risks: risks that malicious actors will apply general- purpose AI to harm individual privacy (see Figure 2.11)."(p. 140)