Published on the 15/07/2014 | Written by Newsdesk
The Federal Government has released a draft guide on “responsible data analytics” that could provide some useful signposts for any enterprise wanting to maintain consumer trust while exploiting data…
The need to maintain trust between Government and citizen is a key theme of the recently released draft guide to responsible data analytics. Intended as an appendix to the Australian Public Service Better Practice Guide to Big Data which was released in April, organisations and individuals have been given until this Friday, 18 July, to respond to the draft document.
While the focus of the draft guide is clearly the public sector’s use of data analytics, and those companies working with Government on big data projects, the guide will provide a useful reference point for private enterprise seeking to exploit big data, but also retain the trust of their customers.
According to the draft guide the overarching pillars for any big data analytics project should be lawfulness, fairness, rationality, openness, transparency and efficiency. It also makes clear that analytics professionals must; “be open and transparent about what data is collected and how the data is used”.
Noting that big data analytics is increasingly being adopted to inform policy, for administrative design and to underpin administrative decision making, the draft guide makes clear the need for agencies, data analytics experts and government decision makers to operate “within acceptable bounds”.
The April 2014 Better Practice Guide to Big Data already makes clear that technical personnel involved in big data analysis should be provided with training regarding privacy, security and any agency-specific legal obligations.
The draft guide also explores the obligations of decision makers who seek to exploit the findings of big data analytics noting the need to ensure that results and conclusions are presented in a balanced and objective manner, including any null findings, and that any conflicts of interest are disclosed.
Perhaps the most contentious part of the guide is the statement that government agencies should “ensure data analytics projects are in the general interest of the community” without defining the term “general interest of the community” which could allow a political lens to be applied in terms of determining what analysis fits that bill.
The draft guide can be accessed here.
In a separate initiative the Government last week unveiled the beta version of its National Map Open Data initiative, developed in association with NICTA, which provides a web front end to all publicly available geospatial data sets. The data sets can be accessed here and are part of the Government’s commitment to increase the number of datasets available for use.
The data sets were released in time for the Australian GovHack 2014 event which invited developers from government, academia and the private sector to dream up innovative uses for the data. Winners will be announced in August.
