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Abstract:
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The importance of confidentiality in maintaining trust in official statistics is enshrined in the statistical law of many countries for national statistical offices. Big Data may not raise new ethical issues for statisticians, but they do add a great deal of complexity. There have been a number of international initiatives to look at the implications of Big Data for official statistics. Much emphasis has been on the legal protections required. Official statistics in the EU is governed by the European Statistical Law, which now gives national statistics offices the right to access administrative records held by public bodies. In the UK the Digital Economy Act 2017 facilitates the sharing of public sector data sets for research purposes, and provides access to private sector data. A Code of Practice under this Act is being prepared. So, developing a legal framework is the route that many statistics offices are following, but there is still a need for public acceptance of how data are used. In a democracy, the legal framework can only advance in line with public opinion, and legislatures will be wary of being out of step with this.
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