The New World of Data on Human Beings: Challenges and Solutions to Promoting Research While Ensuring Confidentiality

• Activity Number: 391
• Type: Invited
• Date/Time: Tuesday, August 2, 2011 : 2:00 PM to 3:50 PM
• Sponsor: Committee on Privacy and Confidentiality
• Author(s): Myron Gutmann*+ and Stephen E. Fienberg*+ and Ian Foster*+ and Emmanuel Saez*+ and Peter Elias*+
• Companies: Carnegie Mellon University and National Science Foundation and The University of Chicago and University of California at Berkeley and University of Warwick
• Keywords: Privacy ; Confidentiality ; Ethics ; Data Access ; Computational Data ; CyberEnabled Data

Abstract

This session is cosponsored by the Committee on Ethical Practice

Advances in cyberinfrastructure have created a virtual deluge of new types of data ranging from new data on human interactions through digital imaging, sensors, and analytical instrumentation to new ways of collecting biological and geospatial information from survey respondents and to combining data from different sources, such as surveys and administrative records. In addition, new computational capacity has emerged that facilitates the analysis of the data in terms of modeling and simulation with an unprecedented breadth and depth and scale. At the same time, new instrumentation provides unprecedented opportunity for researchers to advance scientific understanding through collaboration with colleagues around the globe. Major funding agencies have recognized the importance of these new data for advancing social science research, as well as the importance of providing access to data for research - and have mandated data management and open access policies to promote the dissemination of ideas.