The Information Accountability Foundation (IAF) has appointed two Indiana University Maurer School of Law faculty to lead the organization.
Fred H. Cate, a distinguished professor and C. Ben Dutton Professor of Law, was named the nonprofit think tank’s new executive director, while Stan Crosley, an adjunct faculty member and 1994 graduate of the Law School, was appointed chief policy strategist.
Founded in 2013, the IAF works with global regulators and industry executives to promote organizational accountability, data stewardship, and data ethics. Its mission is to help regulators and responsible companies better understand the challenges around Artificial Intelligence and data governance and respond to them while also serving the needs of people and society. IAF Board Chair Scott Taylor said Cate and Crosley are perfect choices to lead the organization.
“Fred and Stan are industry veterans with over three decades of experience in data privacy and security, and bring a wealth of knowledge, leadership, and innovation to these roles,” Taylor said. “Together, they are well positioned to help strengthen and lead IAF into an exciting new chapter, focusing on delivering high-impact projects that address specific, timely needs.”
Cate and Crosley intend to focus the work of AI on helping regulators and industry leaders develop real-world solutions to data and AI governance challenges. For example, lawmakers in many jurisdictions are working to restrict access to information for developing AI, while at the same time demanding that AI produce accurate, unbiased results.
“These goals,” Cate said, “are admirable, but appear directly in conflict. We need to work together to develop ways of achieving both sets of objectives.”
The newly appointed leaders also hope to leverage the IAF’s members and resources to assemble first-of-its-kind standards for privacy and data protection review boards that many organizations are creating.
“The expansion of review boards is great,” Crosley noted, “especially in the face of ethical and legal issues raised by AI, but without standards or best practices for their operation, they run the risk of impeding, rather than advancing, innovation and compromising regulator and public trust.”
Cate and Crosley have extensive experience in the areas of information privacy and data governance. Cate was the founding director of Indiana University’s Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research, and both he and Crosley were directors of IU’s Center for Law, Ethics, and Applied Research in Health Information.
Cate has served as a member of the National Academies’ Committee on Technical and Privacy Dimensions of Information for Terrorism Prevention, counsel to the Department of Defense Technology and Privacy Advisory Committee, and a member of the National Security Agency’s Privacy and Civil Liberties Panel, the Federal Trade Commission’s Advisory Committee on Online Access and Security, and Microsoft’s Trustworthy Computing Academic Advisory Board, among many others.
Crosley was one of the world’s first chief privacy officers—a role now ubiquitous at most major companies—when he led pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly & Co.’s efforts. He served on the board of the International Association of Privacy Professionals, founded the International Pharmaceutical Privacy Consortium, and up until his appointment as chief policy strategist, had been an IAF senior strategist.