Minding Minds: Protecting Mental Privacy in the Age of Neurotechnology

Moderator: Lauren Perry, Responsible Technology Policy Specialist, UTS Human Technology Institute

Kate Bower, Director, Privacy Reform Implementation, Office of the Australian Information Commissioner

Lorraine Finlay, Human Rights Commissioner, Australian Human Rights Commission

Kiley Seymour, Associate Professor of Neuroscience and Behaviour, University of Technology Sydney

The rapid advancement of neurotechnology presents unprecedented opportunities for human health and medical intervention. However, these technologies also pose significant risks to individual privacy. This panel discussion explores the fundamental importance of mental privacy and the potential of neurotechnology to infringe upon it. We examine the current state of neurotech, its projected trajectory and the associated privacy threats. We address the combined impact of using brain data with other personal data to predict one’s intentions, preferences and beliefs, and evaluate the risks associated with third-party access and misuse. The discussion will call for interdisciplinary collaboration in shaping the future of neurotechnology. The goal is to prioritize human-centered and ethical values to address the risks to individual privacy and autonomy and emphasize the need for proactive and robust safeguards, including privacy-embedded design and data ownership protections.
What you will learn:

• Emerging neurotechnology presents a rapidly growing threat to mental privacy and freedom of thought.

• Current privacy laws are insufficient to protect brain data and current data practices undermine mental privacy.

• A shift in responsibility is needed from reactive regulation to proactive engineering, where the onus is on tech developers to ensure neurotech does not expose users to privacy risks and harms.