"Data protection policies that seem clear are often ambiguous"

A new EU regulation that went into effect in May has prompted consumers to pay more attention to how websites use the personal data they collect. With Polisis, an AI-based program developed at EPFL, consumers can get quick, easy-to-read summaries of websites' data protection policies. And the program is becoming highly popular - EPFL's Technology Transfer Office has received numerous license requests. Hamza Harkous, one of the software developers, is pleasantly surprised at its success and has just entered into a license agreement with US-based search engine DuckDuckGo. We spoke with Harkous about his one-of-a-kind program. EPFL's Technology Transfer Office (TTO) has recently seen a surge in requests for licenses for your software, which generates color-coded graphs highlighting the key elements of websites' data protection policies. Who are all these requests coming from? It's true that the TTO has received over 20 license requests in the past few months. Most of them come from companies offering web services - such as personal data protection software and data monetization applications - as well as lawyers drafting data protection policies and disclaimers, who want to test their texts. Some ad agencies have requested licenses so that they can place ads in accordance with new regulatory requirements. A few of the requests we have received were for exclusivity agreements, which is something we want to avoid. We just entered into a license agreement with DuckDuckGo, a US search engine that stands apart for its commitment to protecting personal data. For instance, it doesn't store any personal information about its users. What benefits does your software offer DuckDuckGo?