Open Data, Big Data, public trust and risk at the Office for National Statistics

Symposium title: Beyond Infotopia: Contextualising Risk, Openness and Transparency in the Information Age A guiding concept within the field of official statistics is ‘trust’. In order to maintain or increase trust the... [ view full abstract ]

Symposium title: Beyond Infotopia: Contextualising Risk, Openness and Transparency in the Information Age

A guiding concept within the field of official statistics is ‘trust’. In order to maintain or increase trust the Office for National Statistics must balance openness and transparency with security and privacy. The digital era is changing every field and this is no different for the ONS, currently undergoing ‘Digital Transformation’ along with all government bodies. This has several immediate ramifications such as the ability to access and collate ever more detailed information from public and private bodies and the ability to commoditise and disseminate our data resources as never before. This transformation represents opportunity and risk. There is great hope for efficiency savings, better governance and growth for UK PLC but there is risk not only in malicious attacks on enticing data repositories, deliberate loss of control of the data and unforeseen disclosure of sensitive information but also in the loss of trust that can come from a perception of central government overstepping its bounds. Here I will present the current ONS approach to openness and existing mechanisms for maximising reuse while retaining privacy and trust, followed by possible futures including the ONS’ experiments in Linked Data and active web scraping of ‘big data’ from social media and private company websites. These future directions will be framed by considering the potential risk posed by such untested methods and with a call for feedback from the risk community.