Data is a critical resource for informing policy and decision-making processes, when used effectively data can contribute to helping policymakers address issues in a wide range of sectors, including public health, and climate, innovation and economic development. Given the importance and potential of having a comprehensive national data strategy, the German government, through the Committee on Digital Affairs, hosted a hearing on “"Innovative Data Policy: Potential and Challenges” on June 26, 2024.
Selected with a group of renowned industry, academic and civil society experts, Dr. Stefaan G. Verhulst, Co-Founder of The Governance Lab (GovLab) and The Data Tank provided his testimony to the committee. In this short blog, we outline some of the key points made in this testimony.
The Potential of Responsible Data Reuse
Data has the potential of being a critical piece in policy and decision-making, when used and re-used responsibly. Acknowledging the vast amounts of data that are available is the first step, the next step is to think critically about how this data can be properly analyzed and used. In some cases, this data will be ready for analysis, but in most cases, the real work is in cleaning and structuring the data in a way that it can be used to provide critical insights. The tension between the availability of the data and its usefulness is where the potential of responsible data re-use lies.
As said by Dr. Verhulst during his testimony:
“We live in a datafied world, characterized by an unprecedented supply — even glut — of data. In this world, data has become a critical resource for informing policy and decision-making processes. When properly analyzed and utilized, data can play a critical role in helping policymakers–and other stakeholders–address a range of critical problems”
Some examples of the potential re-uses of data to address critical problems are:
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Satellite data could be used for the tracking of greenhouse gas emissions
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Social media data could be used to obtain insights on people’s understandings of climate change
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The aggregation of traditional and non-traditional data could be used to model climate impacts on vulnerable groups, including children.
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Water utility data could be used to evaluate the effectiveness of mitigation strategies.
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Cell phone data could be reused to optimize resource allocation for climate resilience projects.
The Challenges: Data Asymmetries and Missed Opportunities
The key challenge is precisely that everything outlined above is potential. And to transform potential into actions, several key challenges have to be addressed. One of the primary challenges is the lack of access to high quality, timely data for all sectors, particularly for those who are working toward the public good.
A key challenge is the growing asymmetries between data owners, usually from the private sector, and potential data users — across all sectors — who have the public good in mind. As mentioned by Dr.Verhulst:
“We live in a paradoxical situation today, marked both by the availability of an unprecedented amount of data, but also by unprecedented asymmetries in access to that data for reuse in the public interest”.
While existing data policies focus on preventing the misuse of data, a way to address data asymmetries is to focus on the missed uses of data, a result of restrictive policies or lack of innovative data sharing frameworks.
Innovative approaches to data policy
To finalize his testimony, Dr.Verhuslt presented three key components of a more innovative, flexible, and responsible framework for data policy. These three components are meant to address three specific forms of asymmetry:
Agency Asymmetry
Agency asymmetry, refers to the unequal ways in which individuals and groups can determine how their data is used. To correct this asymmetries, there needs to be a focus on active consent, moving beyond policies that consider marking a checkbox without understanding the consequences as consent.
To tackle this asymmetry, consider the following strategies
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A shift towards a model of digital-self determination, as championed by the International Network on Digital Self Determination,
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Creating innovative processes that engage communities with their data, requires the development of policies that consider a “social license” for data use
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Innovationing in products and institutional practices to provide secure environments for data sharing
Data Asymmetry
Data asymmetry refers to the limited and uneven access that exists for actors who can use data for the public good, particularly when access is cross-sectoral.
While private actors tend to have vast amounts of data, providing access to this data to other sectors, including the public sector, civil society or academia, could increase their re-use to tackle a wide variety of public interest issues.
Some existing European instruments such as the Data Act and the Data Governance Act have laid a policy foundation to tackle data asymmetries, but these approaches need to be more innovative to succeed. Some recommendations are:
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Strengthening and prioritizing data demand, through initiative such as the 100 Questions Initiative
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New positions or professions that can specialize in addressing data asymmetries, such as the establishment of "chief data stewards"
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Developing new institutional approaches to support cross-sectoral data sharing, such as a data commons approach
Technical and Computational Asymmetry
The last key step in addressing data asymmetries is technical. There is an uneven distribution of technical capabilities and computational resources which have established profound inequities in the global landscape. To address this asymmetry consider the following:
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Providing access to high-performance computing resources for non-commercial and public interest purposes
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Developing of AI and machine learning models specifically designed for the public good
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Investing in education and training programs to increase data literacy across society
As mentioned in the concluding remarks of Dr. Verhulst testimony in front of German authorities, these recommendations seek to “right some of the existing - and growing –imbalances in our technical ecology, and help ensure that the fruits of the data age are distributed more equitably”. Addressing these asymmetries is the key to transform the potential of data re-use into action, creating a more equitable and effective data ecosystem for the public good.