critique discussion Week 2 Open data walace-Week # 2 Discussion Open data is data that anyone can access, use and share. Governments, businesses and indiv

critique discussion Week 2 Open data walace-Week # 2 Discussion Open data is data that anyone can access, use and share. Governments, businesses and individuals can use open data to bring about social, economic and environmental benefits (2019). Open data is data that anyone can access, use and share. Open data must be licensed. Its license must permit people to use the data in any way they want, including transforming, combining and sharing it with others, even commercially. Open data allows groups complete access to interested data (Open Data Handbook, 2019). Open data, especially open government data, is a tremendous resource that is as yet largely untapped. Many individuals and organizations collect a broad range of different types of data in order to perform their tasks. Government is particularly significant in this respect, both because of the quantity and centrality of the data it collects, but also because most of that government data is public data by law, and therefore could be made open and made available for others to use (Open Data Handbook, 2019). In this briefing statement I will highlight three specific types of Open data that are being used and address some of the concerns associated with using Open data. Open data allows groups complete access to interested data. The three categories of data are: infrastructural, public service and personal data. The first category, infrastructural data, is generally noncontroversial; it includes information “about the state of the world,” such as data on weather measurements and transportation networks. Public service data concerns the activities of government, such as a city’s performance statistics and budgets. While this data typically does not implicate privacy concerns, it can when the data is linked to individual users of public services.6 The last type of data is about individuals — or “personally identifiable information” (PII) — such as health data, and it is generally the type of data most strongly protected, either by private industry practice or by local, state and/or federal law, as applicable (Jain, 2015). Listed below are a few examples of the types of Open Data that can be accessed and the information they provide. The first website is Data.gov. As I tried to research the different open data tools, I found that due to the government shutdown the site is currently unavailable due to a lapse in government funding (Data.gov, 2019). I will now discuss USAJobs.gov, which is another open data tool that users can utilize to search for and apply for jobs. The Federal Government offers unique hiring paths to help hire individuals that represent our diverse society (USAJobs.gov, 2019). USAJOBS connects job seekers with federal employment opportunities across the United States and around the world. As the Federal Government’s official employment site, USAJOBS provides resources to help the right people find the right jobs (USAJobs.gov, 2019). This website allows the applicant to upload and their resume’s to multiple employers. This open data site provides a quick, easy and secure way to access potential jobs sought in the federal government. Checkmyschool.org is another open data tool that a user can use for the education sector. CheckMySchool.org, is a participatory monitoring initiative for the education sector in the Philippines. It aims to continuously improve the quality of education services by bringing the participation of citizens and communities into the governance of public schools in the country. It started in 2011 as an experimental partnership project with the Department of Education along the advocacy for access to information and social accountability (Checkmyschool.org, 2019). As you see open data is even available around the world to provide information to different users. The last open data I will discuss is the USDA.gov. The Farmers Market Directory lists markets that feature two or more farm vendors selling agricultural products directly to customers at a common, recurrent physical location. Maintained by the Agricultural Marketing Service, the Directory is designed to provide customers with convenient access to information about farmers market listings to include: market locations, directions, operating times, product offerings, accepted forms of payment, and more (USDA.gov, 2019). The websites and information above are highly sought, and the convenience of gathering and sending the information, we are fortunate to have such useful tools. With all of this data in one place, and it is accessible to so many people here in the US and around the world you would have no choice but to question its impact on the privacy issues that open data may present. Looking at our three open data sites, USAJOBS is one that identifies certain people and business when you are looking for a job. To help with privacy two-factor authentication is now required for the usajobs.gov site, the central repository of job openings where an average of 20,000 vacancies are posted at any one time. In addition to a username and password, users now must provide either a cellphone or a landline number to receive a code to be entered each time (Yoder,2018). USAJOBS has the possibility to release pieces of PII that a cyber attack could use against the user. This is called the mosaic effect which means the “mosaic effect” — when combinations of data tidbits produce a picture that wasn’t apparent from the individual pieces (Vijayan, 2004). Another way that privacy can be affected is with Big data. The falling costs of data collection and advanced analytical methods such as big data, have posed new threats to how information can be identified and connected to specific individuals. In the wake of these advanced techniques, Helen Nissenbaum (1998) argues that individuals do indeed retain a right to privacy in public realms, as people do not expect that others will document and analyze their behavior in a fashion consistent with advanced analytics techniques (“Privacy in an Information Age”, p. 595). Therefore, the collection and aggregation of “public” data found in open datasets and other databases can violate the privacy of individuals by painting a vivid picture of them without their consent or reasonable expectation. It is also a privacy risk when data is used for purposes unrelated to the dataset’s objective. One of the main goals of open data is to improve the social well-being of citizens by improving the delivery of public services and informative research. The use of advanced analysis techniques on open datasets by any public or private actor opens the possibility for privacy breaches to occur. It is therefore important that governments collect and distribute as little personal information as required to fulfill the goals of the collection and to avoid storing an excess of personal information (“Open Government and Protecting Privacy”, 2017, p. 6). Minimal data collection is an important first step in preventing privacy breaches (Nissenbaum, 2016). After the convivence of open data use and then discussing the privacy issues, I will now recommend three ways to safeguard when engaging in open data. The first is that Lewis recommends that an independent third party should validate that the Open Data is complete and reliable (Lewis, A., Rominiecki, R., & Steinhoff, J., 2012). Another recommendation is active logging which must be accomplished. Businesses have an electronic sentry inside most their systems called log monitoring. Log monitoring systems oversee network activity, inspect system events, and store user actions (e.g., renaming a file, opening an application) that occur inside your operating system. They are your watchtower lookout and have the ability to provide the data that could alert you to a data breach. The raw log files are also known as audit records, audit trails, or event-logs (Glover, 2018). The last recommendation is that with the amount of information moving you have automation. A new tool called Privacy Manager, was designed to help companies manage privacy compliance, reduce risk and demonstrate due diligence by proactively assessing privacy risks. Privacy Manager provides automation assistance for the key privacy management tasks of data classification, privacy compliance assessments, privacy impact assessments, privacy policy awareness and attestation, and privacy incident management and reporting (Musthaler, 2009). Having this convenient tool that we know as Open Data; the amount of information can sometimes seem endless. With this freedom there also has to be a way to regulate it, and how it is used. While this level of information provides a transparency like no other, and helps to enhance the trust of the government this could also be an edge sword if it is not used correctly. Thank you for your time and attention.