Yesterday, Stanford Social Innovation Review published a piece from Network chief of research Stefaan Verhulst on a new form of “Corporate Social Responsibility for a Data Age.” The piece, which builds on a talk given by Verhulst at TEDx MidAtlantic and the GovLab’s recently launched DataCollaboratives.org website, discusses the need for a new conception of data responsibility in our age of data-driven problem-solving (and data-driven risks).
After proposing a conception of Data Responsibility comprising a duty to share, a duty to protect and a duty to act, Verhulst offers four immediate steps to enable the necessary culture shift within companies, governments and other data-holding entities:
- Data holders should issue a public commitment to data responsibility so that it becomes the default—an expected, standard behavior within organizations.
- Organizations should hire data stewards to determine what and when to share, and how to protect and act on data.
- We must develop a data responsibility decision tree to assess the value and risk of corporate data along the data lifecycle.
- Above all, we need a data responsibility movement; it is time to demand data responsibility to ensure data improves and safeguards people’s lives.
