Privacy in the Public Sector: Lessons Learned and Strategies for Success

Monday, September 11, 2023 - 1:50 pm2:10 pm

Alan Tang and Anshu Singh, GovTech Singapore

Abstract: 

As governments and businesses continue to digitalise, the need for tight integration between technology and data privacy standards is more critical than ever.

This talk will explore lessons learned and strategies for success by GovTech Singapore in building a privacy toolkit for the public sector. This toolkit (known as enCRYPT), which aims to simplify and democratize privacy-enhancing technologies for non-technical users, has been adopted by over 80 government agencies.

We will discuss challenges encountered during the development process - such as ensuring tight policy-tech integration, balancing between utility and user experience, and building a product in the context of an evolving data privacy regime. We will also touch on our initiatives in Differential Privacy from theory to practice. Attendees will come away with a better understanding of how to build privacy tools for to meet public sector use cases, and strategies to navigate the unique challenges of working in this space.

Alan Tang, GovTech Singapore

Alan is the Lead Product Manager of GovTech Singapore's Data Privacy Protection Capability Centre, which aims to harness and scale the benefits of privacy-enhancing technologies for the public sector. He led a team of technologists to conceptualise and develop enCRYPT, a central privacy toolkit that has helped over 80 government agencies to share data safely. Prior to joining GovTech, Alan was a cybersecurity professional, where he represented Singapore at the UN and was part of the national COVID-19 Cybersecurity Taskforce. He is passionate about working at the intersection of policy and technology for the public good.

Anshu Singh, GovTech Singapore

Anshu is the Research Engineer of GovTech Singapore's Data Privacy Protection Capability Centre, focusing on the research and development of privacy-enhancing technologies to protect citizens' privacy. Prior to joining GovTech, she spent 2 years in AI research, specifically at the intersection of computer vision and privacy, at the NUS Centre for Research in Privacy Technologies (N-CRiPT). She earned her master's degree in AI from NUS.

BibTeX
@conference {290859,
author = {Alan Tang and Anshu Singh},
title = {Privacy in the Public Sector: Lessons Learned and Strategies for Success},
year = {2023},
address = {Santa Clara, CA},
publisher = {USENIX Association},
month = sep
}

Presentation Video