This January, as we mark both Data Privacy Week and the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act’s (Evidence Act) fifth anniversary, it’s time to celebrate how the Evidence Act is pioneering 21st century privacy protections.
The landmark Evidence Act introduced new authorities for secure data access and sharing for statistical activities. It crucially mandated a presumption that data is accessible while retaining baseline duties around sensitive information safeguarding. This means that fully implementing the Evidence Act requires a sophisticated conceptual framework attuned to modern data complexity and evolving privacy expectations. The Evidence Act is a paradigm shift -- increased statistical data use bounded by sophisticated privacy protections. The law’s layered controls and accountable governance better serve privacy aims compared to blanket restrictions. This next-generation, risk-based approach envisioned in the Evidence Act facilitates responsible data sharing for social goods where appropriate. It moves beyond compliance-centric frameworks ill-fitted for an exponentially and rapidly expanding data ecosystem.
The Five Safes framework offers a flexible and detailed way to understand and assess the privacy risks of sharing data. The framework breaks down these risks into five areas: Safe Data, Safe Projects, Safe People, Safe Settings, and Safe Outputs. When applied in policy and in practice, this framework allows for careful assessments tailored to specific situations, empowering data managers to make clear decisions that balance expanding data access with protecting privacy. Considering the Five Safes helps transition towards greater accessibility as envisioned in the Evidence Act and away from automatically restricting data sharing. Elements of the Five Safes framework are embodied in the Evidence Act and increasingly across the policies and practices in the federal government agencies.
This Data Privacy Week, discover how the Evidence Act spurs the need for a sophisticated framework balances access and security. Explore the Data Foundation’s publication on Implementing the Evidence Act to understand how the vision of the Evidence Act can be achieved through a careful and risk-conscious approach to data sharing, helping us navigate the complexities of privacy in the digital age and unlock the full potential of data for societal benefit.
CORINNA TURBES is the director of data policy at the Data Foundation.
Note: This blog post was created with the assistance of an AI tool. The AI did not independently write or publish this post. The author takes full responsibility for reviewing, editing and approving the final content.