The Office of the National Data Commissioner has released a new guide for Departments and Agencies setting out best practice for sharing the data they hold.
The Office’s Best Practice Guide to Applying Data Sharing Principles provides guidance on when and how to safely and effectively share data.
The five Data Sharing Principles are:
* Project — the purpose for sharing data;
* Data — the level of detail in the data;
* Settings — the environment in which the data will be used;
* People — who is accessing the data, and
* Outputs — what results can be made public.
Minister for Human Services and Digital Transformation, Michael Keenan said data held by Government Agencies constituted a valuable national resource which, when used correctly, could enhance public policy and decision-making, while also helping to drive economic growth and development.
“In order for those benefits to be realised, Australians must have confidence that their privacy and security remains paramount when public sector data is being accessed or shared,” Mr Keenan said.
“The new guidelines will help to deliver that confidence by ensuring a more consistent and comprehensive approach to data sharing across the Australian Public Service.”
He said the guidelines also recognised that privacy and data use were not mutually exclusive.
“In fact, we can strengthen privacy by better using and analysing the data we have,” Mr Keenan said.
The National Data Commissioner’s 34-page guide can be accessed online at this PS News link.
