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Running head: RUSTY RIMS IT STRATEGIC PLAN

Privacy Implications of Open Data

           

            Open source and OPEN Data have been able to provide benefits for people to use and to redistribute for their specific purposes. In addition, OPEN Data is defined as data that can be freely used and redistributed by anyone without any restrictions (What is Open Data, n.d).  Many government agencies have also been taking necessary steps to release open data to increase citizen collaboration and participation showing that government agencies can accountable to the data that they store. However, there are also privacy implications that have arisen because of the government releasing specific documentations that are marked as open data.  There are many privacy advocates that are worried that open data can increase insecurity and increasing the risk of exposure of other data that is confidential. In fact, there are types of OPEN Data that can impact the privacy of certain individuals and businesses.

            The first type of OPEN Data that can cause an impact to an individual or corporation is infrastructural data. Infrastructural data includes information about the status of the world such as national maps, pollution data, and data on companies. This data is usually noncontroversial and there are very few privacy concerns about this data. However, in some states or countries they may have security concerns about how the infrastructural data is being shared to the public by the perspective from certain individuals. It is important for government agencies or corporations to verify that any type of infrastructural data they share needs to be uncontroversial.

            Another type of OPEN Data that can cause an impact to an individual or corporation is Public service data. This type of data includes information about the activities of public services and of government. In addition, public service data also includes information about locations of public services, detailed statistics about schools, and city budgets (Parker, B. J., & Jain, K, 2015). This type of data can be listed in a gray area because some public service data can also include older documentation of public services that were published by other individuals making it unclear for a reader to understand. This type of data usually does not implicate any privacy concerns unless the data is linked to an individual or corporation about their public services.

            Lastly, personal data is one of the most common types of data that can cause an impact to an individual or corporation. Personal data is identifiable information about an individual or a piece of data that an individual has an authorized right to access to (Open Data & Privacy, 2013). This type of data that is strongly protected by a private industry that abides by local, state, and even federal laws. This type of data can severely impact an individual and corporation if it falls into the wrong hands of a malicious user. The malicious user can cause harm to an individual such as identify fraud leaving a damaged reputation for the corporation that was protecting the individual’s personal data.

            OPEN Data has the potential to provide a variety of benefits for the public's use but it also provides potential risks as well. With U.S. federal governments pushing to make their data available to the public they must also be cautious of what type of data that they release. Many corporations and individuals should also be cautious about the privacy implications that may arise if they release their own types of open data for individuals to use.

References

Open Data & Privacy. (2013, August 4). Retrieved May 31, 2016, from http://www.opendataresearch.org/content/2013/501/open-data-privacy-discussion-notes

Parker, B. J., & Jain, K. (2015, April). The Challenges of Open Data and Privacy Issues. Retrieved May 31, 2016, from http://www.westerncity.com/Western-City/April-2015/The-Challenges-of-Open-Data-and-Privacy-Issues/

What is Open Data (n.d.). Retrieved May 30, 2016, from http://opendatahandbook.org/guide/en/what-is-open-data/

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