EPIC Urges FCC to Prevent AI Misuse of Video Conferencing Data From Callers with Disabilities

EPIC urged the Federal Communications Commission this week to explicitly prohibit data from telecommunications relay services (TRS)—services made available for individuals with hearing or speech disabilities—from being used to train AI data sets without express, affirmative consent from the consumer following a clear and comprehensive disclosure of the risks involved. There have been numerous, well-publicized instances of AI models being trained on non-public data and that data being leaked to future users. As EPIC explained, it would be a violation of TRS participants’ confidentiality and frustrate data minimization efforts to permit providers to train AI using TRS data without a robust consent-based safeguard. EPIC also supported two FCC proposals to clarify the scope of TRS confidentiality rules to ensure greater privacy for TRS participants. EPIC routinely advocates before the Commission for rules that protect consumers from exploitative data practices, including supporting protections for TRS users.