Transparency and Privacy.

Kieron O’Hara27 June 2012

Themes• Transparency and privacy

• Anonymisation and deanonymisation

• Trust and procedures

2

Transparency and privacy.

A Report for the Cabinet Office• December 2010, independent review commissioned

– Remit: investigate data protection/privacy issues

– Worries about jigsaw identification

– Practical measures

– Context: appearance of police.uk due early 2011

• January 2011, interim report on police.uk

• September 2011, Transparent Government, Not Transparent Citizens

– 14 recommendations

4

Why Is Privacy An Issue?• Value of transparency/open government data

– Accountability

– Growth

– Empowerment of citizens

– Boost to the Web/linked data Web

• Personal data ≠ open data (public data principles)

• However data derived from personal data is very valuable in all these contexts

5

Privacy in the transparency programme• Privacy should be embedded in transparency programme

• Privacy and transparency are compatible if that happens

• Privacy concerns do not currently loom large

• The legal discourse about data protection is not the whole story about privacy

– Individuals identifiable by whom?

– Consider also the technical discourse (stats and computing)

– The political discourse (perceptions, subjectivity)

6

Anonymisation and

deanonymisation.

Anonymisation• Very valuable tool for data sharing

• Issue of deanonymisation/jigsaw ID

– Technical: Narayanan & Shmatikov 2008, 2009, 2010

– Legal: Ohm 2010

• No foolproof technical fixes

• Uncertainties

– Unquantified risks

– Depends on the data environment (incl self-disclosure)

– Cumulative growth of the data environment

– Lack of clarity about liability

8

What Not To Say• It’s never happened before

– Evolving data environment

– Growing computing power

– Motivations of intruders

• Low likelihood of harm

– Quite possibly, but perceptions count for privacy

• Overclaim

– Mendacious to claim data are 100% secure

9

What Can We Say?• Best practice

– ICO code of practice out for consultation

• Precautionary testing

– Not on a regular basis

– Finding weak points

– Creative thinking complements computing power

– Respect for privacy amongst officials

• Constant review

– Who is the identifier/motivated intruder?

• Want to avoid Y2K scenario

– Focus on opportunities as well as risks

10

Trust and procedures.

Transparency and Trust• Transparency depends on public trust

– Gov’t data acquisition depends on democratic legitimacy …

– … and taxpayers’ money

– Data quality depends on good faith of data subjects

• Need to be transparent about transparency

– Consult stakeholders

• Publish meaningful data

– Consult the demand side

12

Sector Panels• Importance of a forum for deliberation about

transparency

• Need to get the right mix of people round the table

– Data protection experts

– Privacy advocates

– Technical experts

– Domain experts

– Those demanding the data

• Positive example from Home Office/Ministry of Justice

13

Conclusions• Publishing data is not enough

– Trust is vital for transparency

• Rules are not enough

– Process is vital for trust

• Taking concerns seriously

• Internalise the debates

• Don’t leave it to lawyers

– Commission input from the technical side

14