Avance associate Tanja Jaatinen discusses the intersections of privacy, open data and transparency in her latest article “Open data initiatives, privacy, and government transparency: a love triangle” which is featured in the most recent issue (Volume 6 Issue 1 February 2016) of International Data Privacy Law, a distinguished privacy law review published by Oxford University Press.
Re-use of public sector information (“PSI”) has proven to be a promising means of boosting economic growth and effectiveness, and the European Commission has estimated that the value of effective re-use of PSI could be up to EUR 40 billion. The recognition of the immense value of PSI has caused governments around the globe to introduce legislative initiatives to encourage the effective utilization of PSI.
In the article, Ms. Jaatinen examines open data initiatives in general, and Directive 2003/98/EC on the re-use of PSI (as amended in 2013) in particular, in order to illustrate that open data initiatives need to be perceived in close connection with the concepts of privacy and government transparency. Further, it is presented that divergent national perceptions of transparency and, consequently, open data demand partly different level of protection of personal data and privacy.
Online access to the issue is available at http://idpl.oxfordjournals.org/content/6/1.toc.