Communications of the ACM

cluding the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA), the Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2014, the Federal Exchange Data Breach Notification Act of 2015, and the National Cybersecurity Protection Advancement Act of 2015. However, these regulations do not specifically address computer-related industries such as Internet service providers (ISPs) and software companies (or service companies such as social media sites), and many of the regulations include vague language that leaves a significant amount of room for interpretation.

Opponents of additional regulatory activity argue that the personal data that is most sensitive and in need of regulatory protection is already protected by regulations such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which provides for data privacy and security of individuals’ medical information.

Furthermore, getting additional,
specific data handling, privacy, and
security regulations that will work in a
global economy may be challenging to
implement, as well as costly and some-
what difficult to enforce. Many modern-
day business services, such as social
media sites, are global in nature, and
it can be difficult to determine the ap-
plicable jurisdiction (for example, if a
South African citizen purchases goods
from a French-domiciled company via
the Facebook platform, and the ship-
ment of such goods comes from China,
which data laws take precedence?).

Additionally, technology companies whose business models are primarily based around monetizing personal data, either directly for sales and marketing purposes, or indirectly by offering access to or selling that data to others, are generally not in favor of regulation that will prescribe how they collect, use, and store data. The argument most commonly summoned by regulatory opponents is that regulation tends to stifle innovation by limiting the creative ways in which data can be used, as well as by increasing compliance costs through requirements for enhanced and more frequent data updating, recordkeeping, and notification of data security breaches.

However, any regulation that limits how a business can capture and use personal data is likely to negatively impact a business that currently relies on relatively unfettered access to and use of that data.

Despite some opposition by technology companies, regulatory progress is being made. The European Union (EU) enacted in 2018 the Gen-

Getting additional,
specific data
handling, privacy,
and security
regulations that work
in a global economy
may be challenging
to implement and
costly to enforce.

Understanding what lies beneath the surface of the sea has always been a formidable challenge. Visibility is terrible, moving can be difficult, and the ambient pressures become deadly with depth. Although submarines and modern equipment can peer beneath the surface, the world’s oceans remain mysterious places that have not been fully explored.

That is beginning to change, however. Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs)—known as underwater drones—are quietly reshaping oceanographic research.

“These robotic systems allow researchers to gather data in ways that were difficult or impossible in the past. They are force multipliers,” says Vicki Ferrini, a research scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University.

Equipped with sensors,
sophisticated propulsion
systems, and advanced software,
underwater drones are helping
researchers map the sea floor,
understand currents, view dead
zones, conduct fish counts,
improve tsunami prediction,
and more. They also are aiding
in finding shipwrecks, building
windfarms, and accomplishing
tasks including inspecting deep-
sea oil platforms and nuclear
reactors in vessels.

Robotic technology is reinventing underwater exploration. Only about 15% of the world’s oceans have been mapped at a resolution of 100 meters—and even most of these areas remain largely unexplored. “Under water drones provide continuous data about the sea floor and they deliver far greater resolution than we’ve had in the past,” Ferrini says.

Autonomous underwater drones are making their mark. A high-profile example is Seabed

2030, a joint effort of two nonprofits that aims to map the entire ocean floor in just over a decade.

“The first step in better
protecting the oceans is to
have a better understanding of
them,” says Rochelle Wigley,
project director for the Nippon
Foundation GEBCO Project
Center for Coastal and Ocean
Mapping/Joint Hydrographic
Center of the University of New
Hampshire.

Because underwater drones can’t communicate as freely with the cloud and other computing systems for extended periods, on-board navigation and programming is critical, says Nathan Michael, director of Carnegie Mellon University’s Resilient Intelligent Systems Lab. “These systems require a great deal of robotic perception in order to have the level of underwater autonomy needed.” The type and positioning of the sensors is critical for navigation when GPS and communications networks are not available.

Drones also require specialized programming to find wrecks, spot specific types of sea life, and accomplish other specialized tasks.

Wigley says internal
programming is a critical issue,
and researchers are constantly
looking for ways to build better
algorithms, software models,
The use of these drones will
undoubtedly grow in the coming
years. In July, an underwater
drone found the French
submarine Minerve, which
vanished off the southern coast
of France in 1968. The wreckage
was discovered at a depth of
nearly 2,500 meters, or 1. 5 miles.
The U.S. Navy has also developed
autonomous underwater vehicles
it plans to use for a variety of
purposes, including the waging
of war.

Concludes Ferrini, “We’re at a turning point where the on-board intelligence, sensing, navigation, and software programming are allowing underwater drones to tackle sophisticated tasks.”