CITRIS Tech Policy Reports & Publications

Reports

• Commentary on California Executive Order on Generative AI (PDF). B. Nonnecke. October 2023.
  This report offers considerations for California’s proposed Executive Order on Generative AI.   
• Delegated Regulation on data access provided for in the Digital Services Act (PDF). B. Nonnecke, J. Stray, L. Belli, J. Lewis. May 2023.
  This report offers two necessary actions in order for the Digital Services Act (DSA) to achieve its goal to facilitate research that identifies and addresses new systemic risks on very large online platforms and very large online search engines. 
• NIST AI Risk-Management Standards Profile for General-Purpose AI Systems (GPAIS) and Foundation Models (PDF). A.M. Barrett, J. Newman, B. Nonnecke, D. Hendrycks, E.R. Murphy, K. Jackson. November 2023.
  This document provides risk-management practices or controls for identifying, analyzing and mitigating risks of general-purpose AI systems (GPAI or GPAIS). 
• Amicus Brief in Supreme Court Case Gonzalez v. Google (PDF). R. Burke, M. Cutts, D. Eckles, M. Ekstrand, B. Nonnecke, J. Stray. January 2023.
  The brief demonstrates that if recommendations are not shielded by Section 230, providers will be discouraged from using novel algorithms to help users find content. It also explains that such a holding would create strong incentives for providers to limit speech for fear of potential liability.
• Building on UC Broadband: Strategies to Improve Broadband Access Throughout California (PDF). B. Nonnecke, C. Siegel Singh, C. Crittenden. May 2022.
  This report offers four guiding strategies and corresponding recommendations UC should consider for supporting broadband infrastructure development and adoption initiatives in California. 
• Artificial Intelligence for Economic Development in Nigeria (PDF). I. Ogunleye. December 2021.
  This paper assesses various sectors of the Nigerian economy and highlights technological innovations that can address some of the development challenges faced by the country. 
• Responsible Artificial Intelligence: Recommendations to Guide the University of California’s Artificial Intelligence Strategy (PDF). October 2021.
  The interdisciplinary UC Presidential Working Group on Artificial Intelligence developed a final report containing a set of responsible AI principles and recommendations to guide the responsible procurement, development, implementation and monitoring of AI as may be implemented in UC operations.
• When the Streetlights Come On: How ‘Smart Cities’ Are Becoming a Surveillance State (PDF). B. McLemore. December 2021.
  This report provides concrete recommendations grounded in critical race, feminist, and disability rights scholarships that emphasizes the importance of centering marginalized voices within smart cities.
• Technologies of Pandemic Control: Privacy and Ethics for COVID-19 Surveillance (PDF). S.E. Freeman. October 2020.
  Through an analysis of four technologies aimed at mitigating the spread of COVID-19 in the U.S., the authors investigate how these technologies work, the privacy and ethical questions they raise, the legislation governing their use, and their potential consequences now and in a post-pandemic future.
• Blockchain, Digital Identity, and Health Records: Considerations for Vulnerable Populations in California (PDF). M. Sistla, C. Crittenden. October 2020.
  Through a combination of expert interviews, surveys with state chief information officers, and findings from a year-long process with the State of California’s Blockchain Working Group, the authors found that blockchain-based identity and health records management systems may indeed offer advantages for unhoused populations in California. 
• The Future of Public Sector Work: Human-Centered Technology and Policy Strategies (PDF). B. Nonnecke, N. Sampath, M. Sistla, C. Crittenden. September 2020.
  The report explores the application of emerging technologies, especially AI, in three public sectors: K-12 education, social services, and law enforcement. 
• Health, Wildfires & Climate Change in California: Recommendations for Action (PDF). October 2019.
  In spring 2019, CITRIS and the Banatao Institute collaborated with the California Institute for Energy and Environment to bring together UC Berkeley faculty and students with practitioners from local governments, state agencies, and community organizations to examine the health impacts of wildfires and to identify solutions to better protect health in future events.
• Responsible Digital ID: Effects of Data Governance Policies and Practices on Human Rights (PDF). B. Nonnecke, H. Ruhrmann, A. Sampson Geroski. September 2019.
  Through an analysis of national DID systems in Argentina, Estonia, Kenya and China, the report investigates how data governance policies and practices affect civil and political rights within the areas of data protection, political participation and inclusion of diverse ethnic identities. 
• Women’s Reproductive Rights: Computational Propaganda in the United States (PDF). B. Nonnecke, A. Martin del Campo, S. Singh, W. Wu, C. Crittenden. June 2019.
  Using a combination of social network analysis, bot detection and qualitative coding, this research explores the role of bots in spreading disinformation, harassment and divisiveness on women’s reproductive rights.
• Facing the Future: Protecting Human Rights in Policy Strategies for Facial Recognition Technology in Law Enforcement (PDF). H. Ruhrmann. May 2019. This research serves as a resource for discourse and policymaking around facial recognition technology (FRT) by providing a systematic three-dimensional policy analysis framework to assess to which degree regulatory policies safeguard the most relevant human rights in the context of FRT: privacy, equity or non-discrimination, and due process.
• Putting AI to Work: Technology and Policy for Enabling the Workforce of the Future (PDF). B. Nonnecke, M. Gummi, C. Crittenden, D. Lindeman, D. Gillette, September 2018.
  Putting AI to Work explores ways AI can be designed and deployed to enhance and augment human labor, especially for aging populations and individuals with disabilities.
• Inclusive AI: Technology and Policy for a Diverse Urban Future (PDF). B. Nonnecke, T. Prabhakar, C. Brown, C. Crittenden. July 2017.
  Inclusive AI explores the benefits and risks of AI-enabled technologies on social, political, and economic inclusion in the urban context and provides policy recommendations for the private and public sectors.
• IoT & Sustainability: Practice, Policy and Promise (PDF). B. Nonnecke, M. Bruch, C. Crittenden. June 2016.
  IoT & Sustainability explores applications of the Internet of Things (IoT) for sustainability in the energy, water and transportation sectors and offers recommendations to city-level officials seeking to implement IoT technologies within these domains.

Publications

• TikTok and a Broader Policy Agenda. Leiken, E. 2023, Tech Policy Press. Written by 2023 UC Berkeley tech policy fellow Emma Leiken. The article discusses the rise of TikTok as a global social media platform and its implications for policy and regulation. 
• The Case for Regulating Platform Design. Farid, H., and Nonnecke, B. 2023, Wired.
  The article discusses Section 230, a law that shields internet platforms from legal responsibility for user-generated content.
• Harass, Mislead, & Polarize: An Analysis of Twitter Political Bots’ Tactics in Targeting the Immigration Debate Before the 2018 U.S. Midterm Election. Nonnecke, B., Perez de Acha, G., Choi, A., Crittenden, C., Gutiérrez Cortés, F.I., Martin Del Campo, A., & Miranda-Villanueva, O.M. December 2021, Journal of Information Technology & Politics.
  This study investigates the interaction and messaging tactics of political Twitter bots before an election. 
• Developing a Digital Inclusion Index at the State Level: The Case of Mexico. Ochoa, M. & Nonnecke, B. September 2019, presented at the 2019 Telecommunications Policy Research Conference (TPRC), Washington, D.C
  This paper builds extensively off prior research on measuring digital inclusion by analyzing different definitions for digital inclusion and comparing common digital inclusion indices. 
• Overcoming citizen mistrust and enhancing democratic practices: Results from the e-participation platform ‘Mexico Participa.’ Meneses, M., Nonnecke, B., Martin del Campo, A., Krishnan, S., Patel, J., Kim, M., Crittenden, C., & Goldberg, K. 2017, Information Technologies and International Development (ITID), 13, 138- 154.
  This article reviews the experiences, obstacles, and lessons learned from development and deployment of the México Participa e-participation platform as a case study for future platforms. 
• The California Report Card v1.0. In E. Gordon & P. Mihailidis (Eds.) Nonnecke, B., Aitamurto, T., Catterson, D., Crittenden, C., Garland, C., Huang, A., Krishnan, S., Nelimarkka, M., Newsom, G., Patel, J., Scott, J., & Goldberg, K. 2016, Media: Technology, Design, Practice (pp. 235 – 240), Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
  The California Report Card (CRC) v1.0 is an experimental platform developed by UC Berkeley in collaboration with the California Office of Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom that streamlines public input by openly encouraging suggestions from a broad range of participants, and combining peer-to-peer review with statistical models to identify and highlight the most insightful ideas. 
• Multistakeholderism in praxis: The case of the regional and national IGF initiatives. Epstein, D. & Nonnecke, B. 2016, Policy & Internet, 8(2), 148-173.
  The growing phenomena of regional and national internet governance forum (IGF) initiatives offer an opportunity to look into how various interpretations of the multistakeholder model play out in different cultural, political and economic settings. 
• The transformative effects of multistakeholderism in Internet governance: A case study of the East Africa Internet Governance Forum. Nonnecke, B. 2016, Telecommunications Policy, 40(4), 343-352.
  This study is one of the first to explore the function of the IGF model in a regional context by investigating the impacts of the East African Community’s (EAC) East Africa Internet Governance Forum (EAIGF), the first regional IGF established globally.
• Personalized telehealth in the future: A research agenda. Dinesen, B., Nonnecke, B., Lindeman, D., Toft, E., Kidholm, K., Jethwani, K., Young, H., Spindler, H., Oestergaard, C., Southard, J., Gutierrez, M., Anderson, N., Albert, N., Han, J., Nesbitt, T. 2016, Journal of Medical Internet Research, 8(3).
  In this paper, the members of the Transatlantic Telehealth Research Network (TTRN) offer a 12-point research agenda for future telehealth applications within chronic disease management.
• DevCAFE 1.0: A participatory platform for assessing development interventions in the field. Nonnecke, B., Krishnan, S., Patel, J., Zhou, M., Byaruhanga, L., Masinde, D., Meneses, M., Martin del Campo, A., Crittenden, C., & Goldberg, K. October 2015, Proceedings of the IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference (GHTC), Seattle, WA.
  In this paper, the authors propose a system called the Development Collaborative Assessment and Feedback Engine version 1.0 (DevCAFE), a customizable participatory assessment platform that collects and integrates quantitative assessment, qualitative feedback and peer-to-peer collaborative filtering.