Federal agencies have a 20-item to-do list as part of the first year of the Federal Data Strategy, including increased sharing of data between agencies. But while the initial strategy and Year One Action Plan include a focus on ethics and data governance, future iterations will need to address how individuals’ information is shared among agencies.
Year one of the Federal Data Strategy implementation officially kicked off Friday with the first meeting of the Chief Data Officer Council. The meeting was closed to the public, but Office of Management and Budget Deputy Director for Management Margaret Weichert and Federal Chief Information Officer Suzette Kent sat with reporters ahead of time to talk about the first-year action plan and future of the strategy.
“Data is the life-blood of our democracy—whether it’s for transparency, for evidence, for management decision-making. But it’s also the growth engine of our economy in the 21st-century,” Weichert said. “As such, it’s a strategic asset and the U.S. government is the trusted steward of some of the most compelling data assets in the world.”
As agencies increase the collection of data, the administration sees a multitude of ways that information can be shared for unintended uses—good and bad.
Kent referenced the National Institutes of Health’s All of Us project, wherein people can opt to share their personal health data with researchers in order to build better models around individualized health care.
“They’re choosing to share their data on behalf of science. You don’t have to be a part of that,” she said.
But Kent cited other examples in which citizens might not opt in to sharing their data that could ..
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