Allowing data, particularly big data, to be shared between the public and private sectors has significant benefits. These include improved public services, transparency and citizen engagement – not to mention the potential for driving economic opportunities and business innovation. And the private sector has an important role to play, not only in leveraging the value of government open data, but in making some of its own data open or available to the public sector through collaboration. Many of these data-driven public-private partnerships have already proven successful. For instance, Uber released their data on traffic to aid transportation planners and city officials; Statistics Canada has partnered with smart meter companies to access electricity consumption data to better understand consumption patterns; and the telecommunications company, Airtel, shared data with the World Health Organization to help combat tuberculosis in India…Yet with great potential comes great risk. Big data sharing raises pressing questions about security, privacy and consent. These questions have become even more salient in recent years, as we’ve learned more about how our data has been handled by technology companies and others.
Read MoreAs COVID-19 has wreaked havoc across the globe, the data community is steadfastly working to develop new tools and methods to better track and monitor the virus. And considerable attention has been given to the innovative role of big data in the response efforts. For instance, in the United States, data from smart thermometers are being used to predict the spread of the virus; Google is employing aggregated location data to demonstrate the impact of social distancing policies; and South Korea has used a variety of data sources, including individual cellphone data and credit card records to track and report on the virus spread. While these novel data solutions have the potential to help save lives, more fundamental data issues remain in the countries where the impact of COVID-19 is likely to be most devastating.
Read MoreIt is estimated that approximately 2 million people around the world have been infected by the coronavirus, and the numbers continue to grow. Yet the data being reported are primarily coming from national governments, which are – for the most part – basing it on who has been tested, which likely reveals only a fraction of the scale of the pandemic. There’s a critical need for real-time reported data from hospitals, health clinics and outreach facilities, based not only on testing, but on symptoms and other key determinants. In addition, we need to know in real-time who lacks access to a health clinic or other basic services, and which clinics don’t have personal protective equipment (PPE), ventilators or beds – as well as where the most vulnerable people live, their age, gender and other crucial demographic information. If there is one thing this pandemic has exposed, it is the acute weakness of the world’s data systems.
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