Welcome to the first issue of The Data Economy Lab newsletter. Hope you are keeping well in these uncertain times.
As data becomes more ubiquitous, there is a need to unlock its value by releasing it to empower individuals and address societal problems. The Data Economy Lab is a partnership between Aapti Institute and Omidyar Network India. It is a space that explores systems, processes and models that can enable safe and secure data sharing to innovate such that individual rights, agency or security are safeguarded.
Aapti Round-up: Reports, Articles & Podcasts
New to Data Stewardship?
Data stewards are trusted intermediaries that lie between users, fiduciaries and requestors and can ease the process of sharing. In our study, we have identified five models of data stewardship -collaborations, trusts, account aggregators and personal data stores.
The Personal Data Protection Bill (PDP) 2019 raises concerns as it empowers agencies with wide powers to access personal data and 'non-personal data' with no clear limitations, guidelines or accountability measures. Its broad definition of 'non-personal data', could also include proprietary data. In order to maximize value from data, balance stakeholder interests and protect individual rights, the brief proposes adopting a data stewardship model. The steward could carry out consent regulated decisions, as outlined in the Justice Srikrishna report and play a range of accountability and management functions.
The responsible management of Non-PII Aditi Ramesh & Astha Kapoor (Aapti Institute)
Non-PII Data is complex and raises significant controversy and the risk of being re-identified. It remains loosely regulated but presents opportunities to generate both commercial value and societal good. A Data Stewardship model can be considered as an effective framework to unlock this data and ensure secure data sharing while upholding individual privacy rights.
Data sharing is at the heart of commuter-centric cities Astha Kapoor (Aapti Institute) & Pravesh Biyani (IIIT Delhi)
Discusses benefits a public information system brings for commuters and details IIIT-Delhi's work with the Delhi Government in creating an open-transit-data platform(OTD). OTD will be integrated with the Indian Urban Data Exchange (IUDX) formed by the government.
Podcast:Privacy, Data Sharing & Covid19
Featuring Siddharth Manohar (Aapti Institute)
The episode unpacks the potential consequences of contact tracing apps like Aarogya Setu on our personal privacy. On what terms is our data collected, handled and stored? How do we imagine PDP will be applied in this context? What opportunities does data stewardship present?
IIT- Delhi has launched a Data Trust website which acts as a framework through which urban mobility data collected by public transit agencies in Delhi and states across India are made publicly accessible.
This gives transit agencies control over their data, and has in-built features that take care of the distribution and security of data
For data users, Data Trust has created a convenient user experience in accessing mobility data
In How to design "Data Institutions" the Open Data Institute (ODI) proposes a range of organizations that may steward data and considers what it would take to make this institutions sustainable
