Wheatland County tightens privacy rules for municipal use of artificial intelligence

By Melissa Crispin-Piche Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Wheatland County has approved changes to its artificial intelligence policy, adding stronger privacy restrictions and an explicit safeguard against using AI to broadly monitor or profile residents online.

Council approved amendments to the county’s AI policy Sept. 22 after a lengthy discussion about personal information, chatbots, automated decision-making and public concerns about how governments could use emerging technology.

Information Services Manager Harry Kim said the county already had an AI policy, and the amendments were intended to strengthen it rather than change its overall direction.

“AI is expanding quickly and presents an opportunity for us to improve operational efficiency,” Kim said. “These updates will allow the county to use these tools under an up-to-date policy framework that minimizes potential risks associated with AI use.”

The revised policy requires AI tools used for county business to be reviewed and approved by Information Services. Personal, confidential or sensitive information can only be processed using tools and configurations approved for that purpose.

The policy also says approval of an AI platform does not automatically extend to every plug in, connector or integration associated with it. Those features may require separate review because they can provide additional access to county data or systems.

One of the most significant provisions deals with decisions affecting individuals.

“AI cannot be the final basis for decisions that materially affect an individual without review by a qualified county employee,” Kim told council.

The written policy similarly requires additional scrutiny for AI uses that could affect a person’s access to services, employment, safety, legal interests or financial interests. 

During the meeting, councillors pushed for clearer wording around the collection of information about residents.

Coun. Donna Biggar said the policy should leave little room for uncertainty. 

“AI is becoming sort of a frightening thing, and I think we have to be very careful about what we agree to collect or not collect,” Biggar said. “I think we need to be very careful about that and collect as little as possible, and only in situations where there’s a direct benefit.”

Kim responded that the county is not using AI to scrape personal information from the internet.

“We’re not mining any personal information at all,” he said. “Any information that we gather is specified by a notice when we’re collecting, it why we’re using that, and why administratively we need to collect it.”

Administration then proposed an additional clause stating the county would not use AI to monitor, scrape, compile, profile, score or infer personal information about identifiable people from social media, websites or other publicly available sources, except where specifically authorized by law and subject to appropriate privacy approval.

Council ultimately approved the amended policy with the additional wording discussed during the meeting.

The policy also incorporates Alberta’s Access to Information Act and Protection of Privacy Act and states that AI-related information handling must comply with applicable Canadian and Alberta privacy requirements.