John Major Nelson

Background

About John Major Nelson

For more than a decade, John “Major” Nelson has been working in compliance and policy for the Federal government. As a Senior Privacy Advisor with experience from several Federal agencies, his job at CISA has been to make contributions to the maturity of the privacy offices in topics related to cybersecurity, network defense, information sharing, data analysis, intelligence collections, and red teaming. With the increasing influence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the related technology developing faster than our needs and legislation, his examinations into the lack of policy have led to a need to encourage governments to explore more predictive maintenance processes, increased security capabilities, and especially ethics principles and procedures for this fast-emerging field. From his privacy office perspective, he has studied, written papers and guidance on proper use of data to improve decisions, and has advised on implications of AI, Internet of Things, and other digital technologies. As a member of the International Association of Privacy Professionals, specializing in U.S. Government policy (CIPP/US), and graduate of the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Executive Branch Artificial Intelligence Lab program, John is leveraging his experience to enable Federal standards, policy, and practices to address the growing concern and interest in what has been called the ethical evolution of AI, including questions about bias, fairness, and algorithm transparency.