FTC is forcing tech firms to kill their algorithms along with ill-gotten data
When the FTC in May settled its case against Everalbum, maker of a now-defunct mobile photo app called Ever that allegedly used facial recognition without getting people’s consent, the agreement featured a new type of requirement that addresses the realities of how today’s technologies are built, how they work and how they make money: it would have to delete the models and algorithms it developed using the photos and videos uploaded by people who used its app.
Machine-learning algorithms are developed and refined by feeding them large amounts of data they learn and improve from, and the algorithms become the product of that data, their functions being a legacy of the information they consumed. Therefore, in order to make a clean sweep of the data that a company collected illicitly, it would also have to wipe out the algorithms that have ingested that data.
Source: Why the FTC is forcing tech firms to kill their algorithms along with ill-gotten data
