Our increasingly digital world generates enormous volumes of data. Data are the by-product of every tap on a smartphone, scroll through a website or swipe of a credit card. Devices abound in everyday life that collect information about people and phenomena. It has never been easier or cheaper to process these data, store them for future use, or share them with others.
Through the Going Digital project, the OECD identified data as a key driver of economic and social value. We see this across our areas of work: data drive scientific research and fuel artificial intelligence. Firms invest in data, and measuring that investment is a focus of the statistical community. Data can confer competitive advantage and contribute to market power, while trade agreements now often feature provisions on data flows. Finally, as demonstrated by the COVID-19 crisis, data can help track the spread of disease and target health service delivery.
At the same time, data can be misused and abused in ways that can harm individuals and organisations. These harms can include the violation of privacy and personal data protection rights and intellectual property rights, digital security risks and confidentiality breaches. These possibilities and pitfalls illustrate that the way data are governed affects the ability of our societies and economies to develop, grow and respond to global challenges, from future pandemics to climate change.
The outcome of two years of fruitful collaboration across policy areas, Going Digital to Advance Data Governance for Growth and Well-being offers an entry point to understanding data and data governance in different policy contexts by providing a comprehensive overview of data, their use across sectors and applications, ensuing data governance challenges, and related policy solutions. It provides new evidence, analysis and insights to inform policies and puts forth concrete approaches to realise the benefits of data governance for growth and well-being.
The stakes for data governance are high – now is the time for robust and mature policies to encourage the wider, yet responsible, use of data.
Ulrik Vestergaard Knudsen
OECD Deputy Secretary-General
Andrew Wyckoff
Director of Science, Technology and Innovation
Carmine di Noia
Director of Financial and Enterprise Affairs
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Marion Jansen
Director of Trade and Agriculture
Stefano Scarpetta
Director of Employment, Labour and Social Affairs
Paul Schreyer
Chief Statistician and Director of Statistics and Data