Ethical, Safe, and Effective Digital Data Use in Civil Society


Blog by Lucy Bernholz, Rob Reich, Emma Saunders-Hastings, and Emma Leeds Armstrong: “How do we use digital data ethically, safely, and effectively in civil society. We have developed three early principles for consideration:

  • Default to person-centered consent.
  • Prioritize privacy and minimum viable data collection.
  • Plan from the beginning to open (share) your work.

This post provides a synthesis from a one day workshop that informed these principles. It concludes with links to draft guidelines you can use to inform partnerships between data consultants/volunteers and nonprofit organizations….(More)

These three values — consent, minimum viable data collection, and open sharing- comprise a basic framework for ethical, safe, and effective use of digital data by civil society organizations. They should be integrated into partnerships with data intermediaries and, perhaps, into general data practices in civil society.

We developed two tools to guide conversations between data volunteers and/or consultants and nonprofits. These are downloadable below. Please use them, share them, improve them, and share them again….

  1. Checklist for NGOs and external data consultants
  2. Guidelines for NGOs and external data consultants (More)”