Open Data, Privacy, and Fair Information Principles: Towards a Balancing Framework

TL;DR

This paper proposes a balancing framework for open data release that considers privacy risks, aiming to maximize societal benefits while protecting individual privacy rights.

Contribution

It introduces a novel framework that assesses privacy risks and guides decisions on open data disclosures, considering different data types and disclosure routes.

Findings

A balancing framework for open data and privacy risks.

Disclosure decisions depend on data type and context.

Open data should be justified by clear public interest arguments.

Abstract

Open data are held to contribute to a wide variety of social and political goals, including strengthening transparency, public participation and democratic accountability, promoting economic growth and innovation, and enabling greater public sector efficiency and cost savings. However, releasing government data that contain personal information may threaten privacy and related rights and interests. In this Article we ask how these privacy interests can be respected, without unduly hampering benefits from disclosing public sector information. We propose a balancing framework to help public authorities address this question in different contexts. The framework takes into account different levels of privacy risks for different types of data. It also separates decisions about access and re-use, and highlights a range of different disclosure routes. A circumstance catalogue lists factors that might be considered when assessing whether, under which conditions, and how a dataset can be released. While open data remains an important route for the publication of government information, we conclude that it is not the only route, and there must be clear and robust public interest arguments in order to justify the disclosure of personal information as open data.