Published on the 12/01/2015 | Written by Beverley Head
The Federal Government has updated its big data better practice guide, including a new chapter on what it considers “responsible data analytics” for most, if not all, agencies…
Government big data analytics projects should be steered by expectations of lawfulness, fairness, rationality, open-ness, transparency and efficiency while analytics professionals must; “be open and transparent about what data is collected and how the data is used” according to the newly updated big data better practice guide.
Big data analytics is already being harnessed broadly across the public sector to inform policy and support better decision making. The update to the practice guide released this month again makes clear the need to maintain trust between Government and citizen.
However in a footnote it notes that the responsible data analytics guidelines don’t apply to all agencies, stating; “This guide does not aim to address the use of big data analytics by the intelligence and law enforcement communities.”
Data analytics conducted by such agencies is a political hot potato in Australia at present given new legislation which will require internet service providers to maintain and provide intelligence agencies with access to customer metadata.
While the big data better practice guide notes the need for trust to be established in terms of the way Government agencies collect and use individuals’ data, going so far as to recommend occasional referrals to agencies’ “Human Research Ethics Committees”, it seems that intelligence agencies will be spared the need for such checks and balances.
The updated guide can be accessed here.
Meanwhile the range of Government data available for analysis continues to grow.
Statistics posted in early January by the Department of Finance show that in 2014 there were more than 5000 government data sets from 159 Government entities available through data.gov.au, which had attracted more than 365,000 users during the year.
That was enough to secure Australia a fifth place rank (alongside New Zealand) from the Global Open Data Index which monitors ease of access to public sector data around the world.
