[open-science] Privacy and open research data

Mon Feb 18 15:07:47 UTC 2013

Hi Jenny,

Thanks for your thoughtful reply and for the very useful additional
resources.  I should preface my remarks by saying these are emerging
thoughts on my part as I participate with a development research funding
organisation in thinking through what Open Data means to them.

I fully take your point about the "hard" sciences, if that isn't already
too loaded an adjective.  There is obviously plenty of research that
doesn't trigger privacy concerns.  However, if I have learned anything in
my recent investigation, it is that the boundaries are fuzzier than I
imagined.  The kind of differential diagnosis process that privacy
researchers use to infer new information from disparate data sources is
both remarkable and disturbing at the same time.  These surprising
inferences are going to happen more often and in more unexpected ways as
more data is made available online.  And that is the great thing about Open
Data and part of the rationale for advocating for it, to encourage exactly
that kind of serendipity.  It is a two-edged sword though whether we are
talking about research data or government data. The surprising nature of
these inferences does raise the question for me as to whether we ought to
be asking the privacy question whenever we ask the open data question, even
if it is only to dismiss it in obvious cases.   For natural reasons, I
think the problem seems more or less serious depending whether you come
from the physical or the social sciences.  Treating privacy as a special
case or domain specific would require a clearer understanding of privacy in
the networked world than I think currently exists.

Let me emphasise that these are not fully formed opinions on my part but
just what my inadequate investigations have led me to so far.  Happy to be
disabused of my concerns.

Regards... Steve

On 16 February 2013 14:08, Jenny Molloy <jcmcoppice12 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Thanks Steve
>
> I think partially it is not addressed as much as it might be by open
> science advocates because privacy is a domain specific issue and the
> majority of data from the natural sciences doesn't have this problem (I
> think that's a true statement, if you consider
> physics+chemistry+maths+non-human bioscience and every other science that
> doesn't involve people). Obviously, social sciences and clinical sciences
> often will.
>
> There has needed to be a general, high level push for open data in science
> which required a simple message and now as the idea becomes more widespread
> I think we'll see a lot more consideration of the nuances of publishing
> data in the fields where privacy concerns apply. However, I personally feel
> we still have a lot more work to do at the broader brush stroke 'scientific
> community' level.
>
> We don't ignore the issue. For instance, the working group response to the
> Royal Society Science as a Public Enterprise consultation was explicit in
> acknowledging that not everything can and should be made open:
>
> http://science.okfn.org/2012/07/10/working-group-response-to-royal-society-science-as-a-public-enterprise/
> "We acknowledge that there are reasons why outputs should not be released
> but these are restricted to a small set of issues including but not
> necessarily limited to personal privacy, personal endangerment, risks to
> the research itself, danger to the environment. All of these are much
> larger issues which deserve consideration."
>
> Which was reflected in the final report by the Royal Society's use of the
> term 'intelligent openness' and their own discussion of privacy issues
> http://royalsociety.org/policy/projects/science-public-enterprise/report/
>
> However, perhaps we should be proactively targeting scientific communities
> who have this greater barrier to sharing research data, or even better
> encouraging more members of those communities themselves to encourage
> discussion and explore and build tools to make it possible. Many
> researchers are now considering how to be as open as posible without
> violating privacy, as in the Privacy Tools for Sharing Research Data
> project http://privacytools.seas.harvard.edu/ to which you linked and we
> should be following and promoting more of that work.
>
> I don't think the open data/science community is making itself vulnerable
> at this stage, but I can see that constantly hammering home a simple and
> absolute message about how science should be done could be alienating to
> those researchers who have even more problems to overcome in opening up
> data, if indeed they can, than those in fields who don't use personal data
> (and even then we acknowledge that making this stuff open and reuseable is
> not easy by any stretch of the imagination!)
>
> Jenny
>
>
>
>
> On Tue, Feb 12, 2013 at 8:04 PM, Song, Stephen <stephen.song at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> Thanks Mario,
>>
>> On 8 February 2013 00:04, Jesús M. Siqueiros <
>> jmsiqueiros.bioetica at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Dear Steve;
>>>
>>> Misha Agrist has a paper in Nature on the subject of genetic privacy.
>>> Probably you already know Misha Agrist, I believe you might find his work
>>> useful and interesting.
>>>
>>>
>>> http://www.nature.com/news/genetic-privacy-needs-a-more-nuanced-approach-1.12363
>>>
>>
>> I thought I would share a couple of other resources that may be of
>> interest.
>>
>> Privacy Tools for Sharing Research Data
>> http://privacytools.seas.harvard.edu/
>>
>> Practices and Tools for Microdata Anonymisation from the International
>> Household Survey Network
>> http://www.ihsn.org/home/node/118
>>
>> After reading the likes of Paul Ohm, Latanya Sweeney, Helen Nissenbaum,
>> Arvind Narayanan and others, I now find myself struck by just how absent
>> the issue of privacy appears to be in the Open Data world.  It's a bit like
>> a movement promoting exercise without providing any guidance on how to
>> exercise safely.
>>
>> It does make me wonder whether the Open Data/Science community is not
>> putting itself in a vulnerable position by not addressing privacy in the
>> context of Open Data advocacy more proactively.
>>
>> -Steve
>>
>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Cheers
>>>
>>> Mario
>>>
>>>
>>> 2013/1/28 Song, Stephen <stephen.song at gmail.com>
>>>
>>> Hi all,
>>>>
>>>> I am hoping someone might be able to point me to resources related to
>>>> the understanding and management of privacy in the context of an open
>>>> science agenda.  Articles such as this recent one in the NYT
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/18/health/search-of-dna-sequences-reveals-full-identities.html
>>>>
>>>> highlight the complexity of effectively managing privacy in a big data
>>>> world.  Can anyone point me to useful research, resources, guides on this
>>>> issue?
>>>>
>>>> Many thanks in advance... Steve Song
>>>>
>>>> On 28 January 2013 07:00, Velichka Dimitrova <
>>>> velichka.dimitrova at okfn.org> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Dear all,
>>>>>
>>>>> We have published sessions summary, slides and audio from the First
>>>>> Open Economics Workshop, which took place in Cambridge, UK last December
>>>>> gathering 40 academic economists, data publishers and funders of economics
>>>>> research, researchers and practitioners: *
>>>>> http://blog.okfn.org/2013/01/28/first-open-economics-international-workshop-recap/
>>>>> *
>>>>>
>>>>> The Open Knowledge Foundation realised this workshop together with the
>>>>> Centre for Intellectual Property and Information Law at Cambridge with the
>>>>> support of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
>>>>>
>>>>> You can also visit the event's webpage<http://openeconomics.net/events/workshop-dec-2012/>and see some
>>>>> photos of the event on Flickr<http://www.flickr.com/photos/okfn/sets/72157632461581780/>
>>>>> .
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>> Velichka Dimitrova
>>>>> Open Economics Project Coordinator
>>>>> Open Knowledge Foundation
>>>>> http://okfn.org | http://openeconomics.net
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> open-science mailing list
>>>>> open-science at lists.okfn.org
>>>>> http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/open-science
>>>>> Unsubscribe: http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/options/open-science
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Steve Song
>>>> +1 902 529 0046
>>>> +27 83 482 2088 (SMS only)
>>>> http://manypossibilities.net
>>>> http://villagetelco.org
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> open-science mailing list
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>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Dr. Jesús M. Siqueiros
>>> Investigador
>>> Departamento de Estudios Jurídicos, Éticos y Sociales
>>> jsiqueiros (at) inmegen . gob . mx
>>> Tel. 5350 1900 ext. 1158
>>> INMEGEN
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Steve Song
>> +1 902 529 0046
>> +27 83 482 2088 (SMS only)
>> http://manypossibilities.net
>> http://villagetelco.org
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>>
>>
>

-- 
Steve Song
+1 902 529 0046
+27 83 482 2088 (SMS only)
http://manypossibilities.net
http://villagetelco.org
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